Evolutionary theory and criminal behaviour

Quinsey (2002): hypothesized relationships and explanations ***test?***

1. “young male syndrome” (age, sex, and crime)

2. Sexual coercion (wartime example)
3. Sexual deviance vs. sexual preference
4. Inverse relationship between kinship and homicide (relationship between family and
homicide)
– The closer you are related to a person genetically, the less likely you are to commit
homicide against that person
– From an evolutionary perspective, you’d be killing off genetic material relating to you

Criminology 2330

Neuropsychophysiology: The Case of Psychopathy?

Video notes:

Two leading experts in this field

– Dr. Robert Hare

– Dr. Adrian Raine

Video people = author of chapter

– Difficult to take care of psychopathy in children at early age because of ethical issues
(in Britain)
– It’s innate
– Not right to called a 80 year old psychopathic
– Biological basis to psychopathic behaviour , can psychopaths be held responsible?
– Research into psychopathic brains- found in psychopaths vs. non-psychopaths
emotional response was low to emotional images/words vs. a non-psychopath

Amygdale – emotional thing in brain

– amygdale functions differently in psychopaths

– anomalies in other parts of the brain contribute to psychopathy, not just the amygdale

pre-frontal cortex – “restraining mechanism”

– possibly damaged pre-frontal cortex

– pre-frontal, orbital cortex, amygdale connection

prison treatment to psychopathy doesn’t work, may even make it even stronger

Incidence of psychopathy

– less than 1% psychopath of the general population

– 15-25% of prisoners
– across all races, cultures and ethnic groups
 – recidivate twice more than other offenders, violently four to five more likely

neuropsychophysiology: the Psychopath

– Primary or “true” psychopaths have certain identifiable psychological, emotional,

cognitive, and biological differences that distinguish them from the general or criminal
population
– Neuropsychological indicators (markers) have been repeatedly found in psychopaths,
as reflected in brain-wave patterns, electrodermal (skin conductance) measures,
cardiovascular, and other nervous system indices

EEG Brain Wave Research

Psychopaths seem to be underaroused, both autonomically and cortically, a finding that may
account for their difficulty in learning the rules of society :

i.e. If something makes you anxious, you’re going to try to avoid, but if you never feel
anxious you’ll never have to avoid anything, unable to be conditioned like other people

- Stimulation seeking – compared to being dehydrated, need to seek arousal to get to

the optimal level of arousal since they’re underaroused

– Underarousal -> reduced fear

Not aroused enough to profit as easily from the classical conditioning

– Poor classical conditioning -> no association between crime and punishment