Essay about Biological Criminal Behavior

Psychopathy, in both the mental health and criminal justice systems, has emerged as one of the most important clinical constructs of the 21st century (Hare, Clark, Grann, & Thornton, 2000, p. 623). Where clinically, psychopathy is traditionally described as a combination of inferred socially deviant behaviors and personality traits. Some traits and behaviors a psychopath is seen to possess are commonly known, for example, to being impulsive, selfish, aggressive, lacking remorse, shame, feeling for others, pathologically lying, and having asocial or antisocial behaviors (Hare, & Neumann, 2006, p. 59-60). One of the reasons as to why psychopathy has come to see an increase in the development of its theoretical and applied interest is the

The group of people that I chose to do intelligence research on was psychopaths, particularly serial killers. I did not focus on any particular subgroup, however there are subtypes of psychopaths such as primary and secondary and among those two subtypes it is further broken down into distempered and charismatic subtypes. In the article Psychopathy: Manipulation, Deception, and Evil, author Pamela Kulbarsh (2012) defines a psychopath as “a morally depraved individual who represent the ‘monsters’ in our society; an unstoppable and untreatable predator whose violence is planned, purposeful and emotionless” (p.1). While in the article it states that not all psychopaths are law-breakers that is a different story with serial killers

Imagine a world where there were no serial killers and the countless lives that could be saved. We should know why these serial killers commit such heinous acts of violence. This knowledge would help to better understand serial killers and bring the mortality rate down. It has been established through research and experiments that one’s social environment and upbringing affects their criminal behavior. Coyne states, “environmental variables work together to cause problem behavior.” (34) Interpreting that these killers usually have something happen in their life, usually when they are younger, and experiencing negative effects of nurture. Some of these

In this world, there are people who are able to shoot, bludgeon, or torture a whole family and then sleep peacefully just hours after. Serial Killers have piqued the American public’s interest for generations. In the 1970s, for example, America was enthralled by the danger and fear of Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy, famous serial killers who killed a combined number of over a hundred people. Following suit of the popularity of serial killers, they have become ingrained in our culture through art, books, news, talk-shows, and movies. A famous example of this trend is in Flannery O’Connor’s ”A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, where the antagonist, The Misfit, brutally murders a family of six. O’Connor described The Misfit as a calm, polite, analytical, morally-confused, murderer with leadership skills and “strong white teeth.” This archetype, a person who can be perfectly calm while being aggressive and lacks a sense of right or wrong, has also been an interest of study in the medical field. The medical community has come together for patients that are described as lacking a moral conscious, naming their disorder psychopathy (Robinson). In Flannery O’Connor’s ”A Good Man Is Hard to Find” The Misfit exhibits signs of psychopathy, shown from his manipulating control over Bobby Lee and Hiram, and staying calm while he directly and indirectly kills six people.

This documentary specifies that there is no easy answer to what is going on inside the mind of killers, and we cannot simply place these individuals into “neat diagnostic boxes” that explain why their actions turned so violent. However, the investigators present research studying different avenues regarding ways to “predict” the likelihood that an individual will commit violent crime, will maintaining that no method is perfect. Throughout the presentation, viewers are offered mountains of research highlighting a mix of nature and nurture ranging from neurologists from Harvard studying brain patterns affected by genetics, to psychologists studying maternal care and attachment during infancy.

This article states that we need to stop interchanging psychopath and sociopath, as they are two different disciplines. Pemment goes into detail about the history, research, and growth of psychopathy. He says that we need to understand the difference between the two, as the behavioral characteristics and potential treatments for each are different. The article includes details on Hervey Cleckley and Robert Hares work on psychopathy. The article describes the PCL-R, and how Hare says the test should be done. The PCL-R is used as a screening tool to identify psychopaths, and

Moving forward into the 20th century, Hervey Cleckley made a contribution to the knowledge and research of the psychopathic brain. He wrote a book called, “The Mask of Sanity” (1976) where he described psychopathy as a configuration of interpersonal and behavioral features. He found that not only do psychopaths contain an antisocial behavior, they also have many negative characterizations and traits such as being manipulative, fearless, impulsive and lacking empathy as well as remorse or guilt. He also found that psychopathy is not only in those who show criminal behavior, however psychopathy may be present in those who appear to be successful and socially fit individuals.

With these doubts to using the causes of psychopathy to identify future psychopathic offenders, there are ways in which the legal system, including psychologists, therapists, and courts, can better determine the likelihood of a future psychopathic offender and how to care for them. Looking back at the histories of adult psychopaths, they “consistently committed more violent and non-violent crimes” from their “adolescence to their late 40s” (Birt et al. 647). When working backwards and looking within the large number of youths that have psychopathic tendencies, one understands from the evidence that some will continue to commit crimes as they grow up into adulthood. A way to narrow down which children will become repeating offenders is to

An associate professor of Psychology and Neuroscience from the University of New Mexico, and a District Judge from Denver, Colorado, wrote in an article, The Criminal Psychopath: History, Neuroscience, Treatment, and Economics, and stated that a big difference in psychopaths is that individuals with psychopathic personality, or psychopaths, have disproportionate impact on the criminal justice system (Kiehl and Hoffman, 2011). Psychopaths are 20 to 25 times more likely than non-psychopaths to be in prison and are four to eight times more likely to violently recidivate compared to non-psychopaths (Kiehl and Hoffman, 2011). Kiehl and Hoffman also noted that psychopaths are resistant to most forms of treatment (Kiehl and Hoffman, 2011). Kiehl and Hoffman noted in their writing that psychopathy is a constellation of psychological symptoms that typically emerge early in childhood and affects all aspects of a sufferer’s life (Kiehl and Hoffman, 2011). These symptoms can affect all of their life relationships with family, friends, school and

Serial killers have been identified by Hickey & Simon, 2002, as a Caucasian male between the ages of 20 and 39 years old. There personalities exhibit psychopathic behaviors, pleasure seeking outlook on life as well as lack of morality when they do something that is violent (Hickey & Simons, 2002). The upbringing of serial killers is steady with these characteristics. Serial killers

A criminal is not defined within a group by the way they look nor their body structure. The biological theories and social influence theories both are ways to describe a criminal. According to Miller, Schreck, & Tewksbury (2011) explain crime as a focus on identifying and understanding unique qualities or characteristics of individuals and showing how the presence or absence of some chemical, hormonal, or physical structure in our bodies is related to participation in illegal activities is called the biological theory. The biological theory of crime attributed to the abnormality or genetics of an individual. I agree with Lombroso (as cited in Miller, Schreck, & Tewksbury, 2011) argued that criminals need to be examined not as a group or class,

There are only two theories of criminal behaviour; biological (nature) and sociological (nurture). The biological (nature) theory looks at the genetic foundation of an individual and the reason as to why they are naturally deviant. An example of a criminal who was naturally evil is Ian Brady, one of the Moors Murderers.

The most vivid example of the biological determinism is the theory of Cesare Lombroso. Lombroso based his theory on the assumption that criminals have certain physiognomic features or abnormalities. Lombroso wanted to be able to detect future criminals in order to isolate them from the society. This gave criminology a strong push to create new methods of dealing with criminals and prevent crimes. Lombroso implied that prisoners had common facial characteristics. If to exaggerate criminals in Lombroso’s theory can be identified through the shape of their skulls, asymmetry of the face and head, large cheekbones, ears and lips, long arms and a twisted nose. Lombroso’s theory is the oldest one and it

For the most part, biological theories of crime and deviance have had an unsuccessful and undistinguished career among sociologists. The Italian physician Cesare Lombroso suggested that someone who is born criminal possesses atavism or primitive evolutionary characteristics that produced violent, savage, and apelike tendencies in humans (Goode, p. 27). In addition, biological theories of deviance see crime and deviant behavior as a form of illness due to pathological factors to certain individuals. The biological theory is another example of Charles Whitman actions. Smart, strong, and talented, Charles Whitman seemed like a perfect all-American boy stereotype.

law is law that has been built up over the years by decisions of the