The Search for the Criminal Man Revisited: - PowerPoint Presentation

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The Search for the Criminal Man Revisited: - PPT Presentation

Biosocial Theories Lilly Cullen Ball Criminological Theory Sixth Edition 2015 SAGE Publications Criminological Theory Introduction By the 1960s biology had lost much of its influence in criminological theory ID: 534002

criminological theory sage ball theory criminological ball sage 2015 edition sixth publications cullen lilly theories behavior biochemical evolutionary biosocial

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Slide1

The Search for the Criminal Man Revisited: Biosocial Theories

Criminological TheorySlide2

Introduction

By the 1960s, biology had lost much of its influence in criminological theory

the mid-1970s, interests emerged in newer biological approaches to criminality

Publication of E.O. Wilson’s SociobiologyIn the late 1970s, Lee Ellis and others were placing their hope for criminological theory in a biological or biosocial approachSome argued a specific genetic defectExplosion of work on DNAThe Human Genome Project

Introduction

Ellis (1977) hearkened to scientific approaches that promised greater results in the future than sociological approaches

Calls began for a “general systems theory” approach to social theory that would allow it to build upon biological foundations without falling into reductionism

Call to be interdisciplinary

With the resistance of many sociological oriented criminologists, it is clear that the current resurgence in biological theorizing will persist and grow in the foreseeable futureBiosocial theorists suggest that biological traits interact with the social environment to shape human behaviorLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide4

Introduction

Biosocial criminology is a “broader and more powerful” paradigm than sociological criminology and is likely to be the major paradigm of the 21st century

More major “breakthroughs” are being hailed in biology, lending additional momentum to the few biologically oriented criminologists

At both the beginning and the end of the 1990s indicated that about 85% of American criminologists remained strict environmentalists

Introduction

Biosocial criminologists risk being charged with racism and/or sexism in an atmosphere of political correctness

Most biosocial criminologists reject the idea that biology translates into a predestined fate and instead suggests that genetic traits interact with the environment to shape human behavior

Introduction

Biosocial approaches may be categorized in terms of evolutionary psychology, neuroscience

, and

genetics

Evolutionary Psychology: Darwin Revisited

Several new efforts to formulate theories based on evolutionary dictates

Cheater theory

: Some males have evolved “alternative reproductive strategies” to unconsciously ensure that their genes are passed on to succeeding generations

Evolutionary Psychology: Darwin Revisited

The cheater theory: Argues some males have evolved alternative reproductive strategies that unconsciously ensure their genes are passed to succeeding generations

Cads v. Dad

The r/K theory

: Stresses that biological creatures vary in their approach to reproductionR= large number of offspring with no attachmentsK= slower reproduction with attachmentsConditional adaptation theory: Maintains that antisocial behavior is part of an overall adaptive response to an unstable or hostile environmentLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide9

Evolutionary Psychology: Darwin Revisited

Alternative adaptation theory: Some people inherit a greater tendency to engage in antisocial and are driven more by mating urges than by parenting urges

Evolutionary expropriative theory

: All humans have an equal genetic potential for antisocial behavior; humans are genetically driven to acquire resources to ensure reproduction

Evolutionary Psychology: Darwin Revisited: Assessment

Evolutionary theories are rarely as purely biological as the media make them appear; rather they are biosocial

Darwin’s unit of analysis is the species and concerned with the process of natural selection

Tendency for some evolutionary psychologists to write as if a trait that has survived must be

ipso facto a desirable one, but those traits may be detrimental todayMany evolutionary psychologists study the presumed evolution of “positive” traits such as empathy and altruismLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide11

Evolutionary Psychology: Darwin Revisited: Assessment

Within the past several decades evolutionary psychology has been dominated to some extent by a notion that departed from Darwin’s approach—that of the “selfish gene

”

Has come under increasing scrutiny in the past 30 years and evidence suggests that individual selection and group selection are operating simultaneously

Social Concern Theory: Evolutionary Psychology Revisited

Set forth by Agnew in 2013

A social concern has four elements:

are about the welfare of othersDesire close ties to certain othersFollow certain moral intuitionsConform to the behavior and views of others and to social norms, as well as sanction those who violate such normsArgues that social concern has a direct, negative effect on crimeLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide13

Social Concern Theory: Evolutionary Psychology Revisited

Social concern can also have indirect, conditioning, and mediating effects on crime

Individual and circumstantial factors can affect variation in levels of social concern

Social concern is “natural” and has a substantial biological basis

Emerged out of the evolutionary process that allows for cooperative behavior providing a major survival advantageLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide14

Neuroscience: Neurological and Biochemical Theories

The newer biosocial approaches tend to acknowledge the importance of learning, but they emphasize the extent to which the learning and conditioning of behavior occur differently for different individuals because of neurological

or biochemical variants and the way in which the environment (including the womb) affects these neurological and biochemical variations, which are called

polymorphisms

Neuroscience: Neurological and Biochemical Theories

Major neuroscientific theories of criminality include:

Brain hemispheric theory: psychopaths rely less on right hemisphere and more on left

Reward dominance theory: reward centers are more powerful than the inhibitory systems in criminals

Prefrontal lobe theorySuboptimal arousal theorySeizuring theory: most controversial; seizures higher among offendersLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide16

Neuroscience: Neurological and Biochemical Theories

The newer biosocial theories have focused considerable attention on family studies aimed at locating genetic factors by examining behavioral similarities among members of the same family, although today they stress behavioral characteristics

Twin studies are very common as well

Mednick’s Biosocial Theory

Mednick proposed that certain high-risks individuals inherited an autonomic nervous system (ANS) that is less sensitive to environmental stimuli which makes it less likely that they will develop the responses necessary to inhibit antisocial

behavior

Stresses that an individual with a normal ANS will experience a reduction of fear immediately on inhibiting antisocial activity and that, because this fear reduction is a powerful reinforcement, that person will learn to inhibit such activity

Other Biosocial Theories

Theories arguing for disorders of the central nervous system:

Cortical immaturity hypothesis

Hypoarousal hypothesisSuboptimal arousal theory – differences in ANS make people less sensitive to environmental stimuliSupported in EEGs“Hypoarousal” is measured by low pulse rate, low blood pressure, and reduced skin conductance of electricitySubjects characterized by hypoarousal show much lower responses to environmental stimuli than “normal” subjectsLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide19

Other Biosocial Theories

Fearlessness theory: Low levels of arousal are markers for low levels of fear and that such fearless types are simply less likely to avoid situations that bring trouble with the law

Stimulation theory

: Such low arousal represents an unpleasant psychological state resulting in such types to seek out trouble to get sensory stimulation to avoid boredom

Brain Development and Crime

New techniques include computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and single photon emission tomography (SPECT)

Biosocial criminologists have concentrated on the possibility that structural abnormalities of the brain may be associated with brain dysfunctions that are associated with criminal activity

Brain Development and Crime

Violence may be associated with frontal lobe dysfunction, whereas sex offenses may be associated with temporal lobe dysfunction

Frontal lobes are associated with the executive cognitive functions

Frontal lobe dysfunction hypothesis

Left prefrontal lobe = positive affect; right prefrontal lobe = negative affect and withdrawal behaviorDorsolateral lobe damage = distractibility and poor executive functioning; orbitofrontal lobe = conduct disorder and antisocial personality disorderLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide22

Brain Development and Crime

The brain is a “triune system” consisting of the mid-brain (limbic system), R-complex (reticular activating system – RAS), and the prefrontal lobesPsychopaths have less activity in the RAS and more in the bilateral frontal temporal cortex

Amygdalae are smaller in psychopaths making them less likely to feel a fear response and have trouble registering the fear of victims

Brain Development and Crime

Long history of tracing various forms of deviant behavior to the possibility of head injury

The

somatic marker hypothesis

maintains that decision making entails both cognitive and emotional processing to evaluate the reward value of various behavioral choices, with “somatic markers” being formed in the brain as a consequence of various action-outcome sequences experienced in the pastLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide24

Biochemical Theories

Fishbein has offered a theory that traces much of the problem of intractable offenders to an impaired hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA), which has a negative effect on executive cognitive functionsHPA impairment is associated with environmental stress

Severe stress leads to increased cortical levels causing the structures comprising the HPA to shrink resulting in memory and cognitive decline

Biochemical Theories

Recent biochemical theories have focused on sex hormones and neurotransmitters

Sex hormone theory

has been concentrated on possible connections between testosterone and aggression

Evolutionary neuroandrogenic theory of criminality: The biochemical effect of testosterone lowers neurological sensitivity to environmental stimuli, which is conducive to “acting out” and problems with emotional control, and it also tends to impair higher thought by producing a shift in the functioning of brain hemispheresLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide26

Biochemical Theories

Theorists have suggested that premenstrual syndrome (PMS) aw well as postpartum depression are the biochemical factors that affect women

Other neurotransmitters identified by theorists and researchers linked to aggression are low levels of serotonin, low levels of dopamine, and high levels of norepinephrine

Exercise of self-control needs sufficient glucose levels

Biochemical Theories

Reduced volume and surface deformations in the amygdalaes (along with differences in the middle frontal and orbitofrontal cortices)

arefound

“unsuccessful” psychopaths with criminal convictions versus “successful” psychopaths who have avoided convictionsImpulsiveness and negative emotionality are linked to low levels of serotonin, and there are now over 100 studies linking low levels of self-control to low levels of serotoninLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide28

Biochemical Theories

The association between biochemical factors and antisocial behavior is hard to studyWhich came first?

Time ordering issues

Crime v. criminality

According to Walsh criminality is the predisposition to engage in crime, while Turk defines criminality as a consequence of power struggles over which behavior should be regarded as crimeLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide29

Biochemical Theories

Polymorphisms for genes regulating dopamine and serotonin have shown significant relationships to “criminality”

Biochemical Theories

One perplexing problem in criminology is the age-crime curve

Evolutionary

neuroandrogenic

theory points to the dramatic biochemical increase in testosterone during male adolescence Juveniles have more dominant nucleus accumbens activity compared to the amount of activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) relative to younger children and adultsCombined with increased testosterone increases likelihood of antisocial behavior and associated with dominance rather than aggressionDopamine rises in adolescenceLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide31

Biochemical Theories

Moffitt’s life-course persistent (LCP) and adolescence-limited offenders (AL)LCPs have low IQ, hyperactivity, inattentiveness, negative emotionality, low impulsive control

Neurological problems interacting with the environment leads to antisocial behavior

ALs find antisocial behavior functional and adaptive

Neuroscience: Assessment

Advanced rapidly in the past two decadesGives us an understanding of why cognitive behavioral therapies are able to succeed with offenders

Much work left to be done

Genetics

The genetic approach may be subdivided into behavior genetics, molecular genetics, and epigenetics

Explore relationships between

genotypes

and phenotypes Genotypes – extent that traits are inheritedPhenotypes – the processes in which the above occursAnd how does the environment alter gene functioning without affecting the basic DNALilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide34

Behavioral Genetics

Tries to tease out the heritability component from the environmental contribution to various traits

Significant heritability for fearlessness, aggressiveness, sensation seeking, impulsivity, and low IQ

Began with the observation that females are less involved in antisocial behavior than males

Behavior Genetics

Gender differences have suggested the genetic difference between males and females might be associated with crime

Traces intervening variables that increase the likelihood of criminal activity

Must remember, what is inherited is a tendency to respond to certain environmental forces in terms of general predispositions and not a specific behavior

Molecular Genetics

Molecular genetics focuses upon analysis of the detailed processes by which genetics has its effects upon traits and behaviors, with special attention to the deep molecular structure of substances such as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)

There is nearly unanimous agreement that there is no such thing as a “gene” for crime

Whether a genetic

Molecular Genetics

The relationship between gene and environment is referred to as the “gene × environment correlation”

Passive: Children inherit

both

their genes and their environment from their parentsActive: Reflect the tendency for people to seek out environments to which they are predisposedEvocative: Different people also evoke different responses from their environments even when the latter are identicalLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide38

Epigenetics

Environmental factors tend to alter gene functioning without affecting the molecular structure of DNA at all by activating or deactivating particular aspects

Inheritance of characteristics

acquired

by parents that were never part of the gene pool Epigenome operates to adapt the organism to the particular environment in which it will find itselfEpigenetics has shown that the diet of the pregnant woman may actually affect her grandchildren and great grandchildrenLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide39

Genetics: Assessment

Behavior genetics, molecular genetics, and epigenetics focus on the search for relationships between genotypes and phenotypes

enotypes

is a question of where to look for the “independent variable” that is associated with the traits and behaviors in which biosocial criminology is interestedBiosocial criminologists now search for intervening variables that seem to link certain genotypes to general categories of law violation such as violent crimeExploring how certain genotypes tend to be associated with intervening variables such as “impulsivity” or “fearlessness” that might tend to lead to yet another intervening variable in the form of “antisocial behavior,” some of which may entail criminalityIQ example

Conclusion

Evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and genetics have made significant contributions to biosocial theory within criminology Some criminologists have tended to react with almost reflexive resistance to this new criminological paradigm

However, theorists need to work together and learn from one another