(12) Unit 1 – Classic Research: Raine et al’s (1997) ‘Brain Abnormalities in Murderers’ (evaluation of methodology and procedures)

Why is the use of PET scans a strength of Raine’s methodology?

They are objective and scientific.

What are PET scans?

Brain scans that detect gamma rays emitted from brain by using an FDG tracer to trace glucose metabolism in areas of brain functionality.

Why is their use beneficial?

Scans are scientific and provide solid, observable evidence of results meaning that Raine could show some sort of a cause-and-effect relationship between brain areas and violent crime.

As a result, why are PET scans a strength of Raine’s methodology?

They are empirical, objective and trustworthy.

Why is the research being a quasi experiment a weakness of Raine’s methodology?

Because correlation (a link between two variables) does not show the cause of the issue.

How does correlation cause issues here?

As Raine pointed out, findings don’t show that violence is due to biology alone. Other factors such as upbringing must influence violence.

What is another factor that could cause violence?

‘Environmental determinism’ shows that we learn through observation, meaning that if a child grows up witnessing violence, they are more likely to replicate that behaviour.

As a result, why is a quasi experiment a weakness of Raine’s methodology?

This could be seen as reductionist, ignoring all the other factors that may have an impact on violence.

Why is Raine having strict procedures in place a strength of his procedures?

It shows that his research is replicable.

What is an example of a strict procedure participants had to follow?

Participants were not allowed to take medication for 2 weeks prior, tested by urine samples, to eliminate any confounding variables. He also matched participants on age and gender to eliminate individuals differences.

What does this mean for his research?

It can be repeated as his procedures were standardised.

As a result, why are strict procedures a strength of Raine’s procedures?

If findings can be replicated and the reliability of Raine’s research can be checked for consistency, it makes for more valued and trusted research. It also means that validity can be considered, especially over time.

Why is Raine only studying murderers a weakness of Raine’s procedures?

It made his study ungeneralisable.

Who made up the experimental group?

41 extremely violent individuals and even serial murderers were studied, claiming that they were NGRI.

Why does this make his study ungeneralisable?

Many violent crimes don’t involve murder, e.g. robbery, so the conclusions cannot be generalised and are restricted to a very specific group of criminals.

As a result, how is only murderers being studied a weakness of Raine’s research?

We cannot draw conclusions about other violent offenders.