Lecture 12: The Criminal Mind: Focus on psychopathy

Who was Charles Witman?

25 years old former Marine and architectural engineering - 99th percentile IQ
Over 96 minute period, he killed 14 people, as well as his wife and mother
Described it as relieving them of the suffering of the world and from shame → seemed to be premeditated and preplanned.
From sucicide note, it seemed that he was aware of his mental health problems.

What were Charles Witman’s symptoms?

Increasingly frequent and intense headaches and bouts of rage and struggles at university, using amphetamines
Struck his wife on three occasions, greatly upsetting
Seen at least 5 doctors and 2 psychiatrists in the previous 6 months - had told psychiatrist that he had plans for violent impulses, even told the university and had thoughts of climbing the tower and shooting people.

What did they find in Charles Witman’s autopsy?

Found a vascular misformation and a tumour. This tumour was pushing on the thalamus, and pushing on the hypothalamus and amygdala. The vascular misformation also had impacts on the amygdala.
Could have lead to his inability to control his emotions and actions
Note that the tumour is glioblastoma.

What is a mammillary body?

Enlargement associated with conflamulation problems.

Describe the amygdala?

Late 1800 - damage to the amygdala cause emotional and social disturbance
1930s - henrich kluver and paul bucy demonstrated that damage to the amygdala in the monkey lead to a collection of symptoms, including a lack of fear, blunting of emotions and over reaction
Female monkeys with amygdala damage neglected or physically abused their infants
Note that the amygdala received input from all of your senses.
Associated with the processing of fear, suspicion and anger.
Note that the ventromedial PFC keeps the amygdala on a short leash.

Describe the case of Burns et al?

40 year old right handed male - otherwise normal health, has developed an increasing interest in pornography including child pornography
Had a preexisting strong interest in pornography dating back to adolescence, wherein he denied a precious attraction to children .
Activity became more and more problematic – patients went to great lengths to conceal their activities.
Legally removed from the home, diagnosed as having paedophilia prescribed hormonal therapies, found guilty of child molestation and ordered to undergo rehab.
In the rehab centre you could not restrain himself → in the evening before prison he underwent a neurological exam, found balance problems, went into an MRI,
Found a giant tumour mass in the prefrontal cortex. The tumor was removed, and his copied drawing skills became better .

Describe increasing evidence that criminal behaviour has a neurobiological basis?

TBI - is more prevalent in offenders and prisons compared to healthy, non-criminal control participants
Schofield, Bulter et al. Examined 200 people entering the NSW prisons system and found that 82% of people reported a latest one TBI during their lifeline and 65% reported loss of consciousness.

What is the potential relevance of neuroscience towards the law?

Impacts on
Fitness to be interviewed
Fitness to stand trial
Criminal responsibility
Criminal culpability.

What did Darby et al show?

Looked at lesions from 17 patients with acquired criminal behaviours, manually traced into common brain atlas
Found that lesion sites were spatially heterogeneous including the medial prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex and different locations with the bilateral frontal lobe.
No one magic region that dictates criminal behaviours → story of connected brain regions, one impact will have down and upstream impacts.
All the lesions that were associated with criminal behavior were functionally connected to prefrontal context and reward circuits (NcA)
Related to impacts on value-based decision making and theory of mind.

What is the theory of the mind?

Describe the idea that we are not just genes and a brain?

We aren’t just our genetic blueprint, we can be easily impacted by pre-natal and that we are born into a world of circumstance that continues to shape us.
E.g. Examples of circumstances
Lead - harmful to the developing nervous system – can impact intelligence and therefore education – education can significantly impact criminality.

What is chronic traumatic encephalopathy?

Long-term neurodegeneration sustained from exposure to repetitive concussion
Definitive only upon death
Red flags - Hx Head injuries, behavioural changes (self-harm/violence) and legal troubles.
E.g Derek Boogaard - enforcer - died at 28, found to have CTE.
E.g Aaron Hernandez - history of overacting - DV household - charged with assault, murder - took his own life after he was acquitted of a further double homicide – post-mortem showed stage CTE

What is CTE’s interaction with Frontotemporal dementia

Argues that FTD is characterised with some of the shared characteristics with the CTE
Head knocks to the brain causes damage leading to changes in the brain.

Explain the idea that Frontotemporal dementia is an acquired sociopathy?

People with behavioural FTD can develop criminal behaviour despite an understanding of the social norms.

Explain the idea that criminal behaviour can be induced?

With temporal changes in a lobe we can change a person's behaviour. Suggests a lot of questions about the responsibility of a crime.