The Brain and Violence

THE BRAIN AND VIOLENCE:

Adrian Lee

Psychology of Criminal Behavior

Instructor: Cheryl Cabero

October 7, 2013

THE BRAIN AND VIOLENCE:

Most violence behaviors are judged on the seriousness of the crime, and how it was done, it is not a usual task to actually look into the psychological point as far as brain damage and how this could cause a person to commit murder. The video "Secrets of your mind" actually goes inside of the brain of a psychopath as well as a person who was considered normal but committed murder, the evidence it showed is controversial," Is there a region of the human brain that can be linked to evil? What is it like inside the mind of a psychopath? This ABC News program explores these questions as it follows cutting-edge work in psychology and neuroscience" (ABC news, 2010).

After watching the video mention in the latter it is obvious that some criminal activities that are violent are because of a dysfunction in the brain, "results of the tests, called the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery, support the idea that violent behavior in humans is related to functional problems in parts of the brain that influence emotion" (The Globe and Mail, 1982, Aug24). This has been an ongoing study and it shows that in a normal brain there are more frontal lobes than in a psychopath brain or a murderer.

Reports describing high rates of neuropsychiatric abnormalities among death row inmates, forensic psychiatric inpatients, and other persons with histories of violence have led to assertions that evidence of brain-behavioral impairment may mitigate or excuse criminal conduct. "Frontal lobe dysfunction in particular, has been invoked to explain the actions of some persons charged with, or convicted of, violent crimes, who apparently fail to inhibit impulsive, trivially motivated or habitual aggression (Brower, M. C., & Price, B. H. 2001).

While some brain dysfunctions may have an impact on violent crimes, that is not the only reason violent crimes are committed some people commit violent acts because of substance and drug abuse, low self-esteem, peer pressure, and then there are some who commit violent crimes just because they are pure evil, to blame all violent acts on the one theory of brain dysfunction would be unrealistic.

While brain dysfunction may be some of the reason I do not believe that is all of the reason behind violent behavior. "The medical world has long believed that behavior disorders (ranging for mild temper tantrums to assaultive rages) result from life experiences such as lack of love, bad parenting, child abuse, broken homes and poverty. However, during the past decade, scientific research has