Raine On Violence

Due to its primary role in processing memory and emotional reactions, over the last decade and a half psychologists have been linking the amygdala to psychopathy. It is involved in aversive conditioning and instrumental learning and is thus involved in all the processes that, when impaired, produce the same functional impairments displayed by psychopaths. Two famous studies conducted by Tiihonen and Kiehl respectively have confirmed this. Tiihonen used a volumetric MRI to test and confirm the positive correlation between low amygdaloid volume and a high degree of psychopathy in violent criminals (measured by the Hare checklist-revised) while Kiehl used a functional MRI to prove reduced amygdala response during an emotional memory task in individuals who scored high on the Hare checklist-revised. However, both these studies along with numerous others were conducted using violent offenders as subjects rather than individuals with psychopathy. Although many psychopaths do exhibit violent tendencies, not all violent offenders are necessarily psychopaths. A study conducted by Raine is one of the few that did focus only on individuals exhibiting psychopathy. In his study Raine was able to show reduced prefrontal grey matter in his test subjects. Unfortunately though, he was unable to differentiate between grey matter in different regions of the prefrontal cortex. It is however clear that there is one region of the frontal cortex that could be

The book, Challenger Deep, expresses what a mental illness is, and how it can affect a person. One common factor, that can lead to different mental illnesses and mental trauma, is a TBI, or traumatic brain injury. TBIs, such as concussions are common in all people, but the outcome can differ between ages. TBIs, are very common, “and the major cause of death and disability in the United States” ( ). Those who have not died from a TBI or concussion, are affected by the long term effects, which include impaired memory/thinking, sensation, movement, or emotional functioning such as depression. Depending on the severity of a TBI, it can make a person more at risk for different diseases. When you have a TBI that causes epilepsy, “it increases the

Modern biology is focused more on understanding behavior, like violence and crime, through research on indicators and influences. Rather than attempting to determine a single root cause, researchers are discovering markers of predisposition and identifying factors of risk. In a recent interview about his new book, The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime, criminologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Adrian Raine asserts that there is a “biology of violence” that should not be ignored; “Just as there’s a biological basis for schizophrenia and anxiety disorders and depression… there’s a biological basis also to recidivistic violent offending” (Gross, 2013).

If human beings are a part of nature, it can be assumed that they too have violent tendencies; in that respect, violence is a natural and innate response. Though we pride ourselves on being able to control these urges, they are always lurking somewhere beneath the surface of our most serene and civilized moments.

“I never hurt nobody but myself and that's nobody's business but my own.” Billie Holiday, some call her “queen of jazz”, is an African American jazz female singer and songwriter who had tremendous influence on jazz and pop culture. Billie Holiday had a tough youth as she grew up. Her father, Clarence Holiday, abandoned her and her family to pursue his music dream when Holiday was still a baby. In furtherance of take off some of the pressure for the family financially, Holiday started to perform singing in different Harlem clubs in Brooklyn as she grew up. This little step officially started Billie Holiday’s music career. However, Blue music was “[defined] as inferior to other forms of music” at that time, so Holiday did not get the recognition she deserved even after her death. During the 1970s, Jazz and Blue music appeared to be recognized

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.

Throughout this day in age, all over several media outlets, different acts of crime are shown on display for anyone, of all ages, to review. One thing that lacks from the plentiful amounts of these reports on various atrocities, ranging from theft to cold-blood murder, is a motive. However, what if a motive does not play a role in a crime? Yes, there a bounteous reasons as to why some commit crimes, but something may possibly lay deeper within the mind that one cannot see without a series of invasive research of psychological and neurological testing. Within his findings, documented in The Anatomy of Violence, Adrian Raine takes a look into the anatomical and biological roots as to why people execute felonies; wanting readers to gain and

The psychic of the young person is shaped by social interactions as well as the parental training. Often the young murderers were brought in pathological environments, they did not experience the parental love and acceptance, and they forced themselves to drown particular emotions so as not to appear weak. All these factors results in social dysfunctions that triggers violence and violence becomes the perfect self-defense mechanism, because it brings attention. According to the FBI’s list of traits that describe young murderers the most common syndromes are the feeling of isolation, the narcissist disorder, and depression6. A perfect example to support the above argument will be a background check of Jeff Weise, a young sixteen-year-old boy who killed 9 people and committed suicide in the Red Lake Senior High School in Minnesota in 2005. Weise’s family was the kind of pathological one, his parents were separated, his mother had a habit of drinking too much being an abusive alcoholic, what is more Weise himself was often bullied at school7.

In our time, the Transportation Security Administration is an integral part of airports in the United States. One cannot simply travel on a plane without going through the metal detectors or taking off his or her shoes. For many travelers, the TSA is a hassle. However, some treat it as a necessary evil. They believe that the presence of the TSA is needed to offset the vulnerable state of airports.

British neuroscientist Adrian Raine was the first to scan the heads of murders to observe their brain activity in California. The reason Professor Raine was drawn to California was because of the homicides and murders there were in the whole state of California. Throughout a couple years, professor Raine kept scanning the brains of murders and noticed something that appeared in similarly in most of the murders. There was reduced activity in the frontal cortex of the brain. The frontal cortex is the area of the brain where our emotional instincts are controlled. Professor Raine also discovered that the amygdala, is where our emotions and motivations come from, is over activated. This proves that serial killers and murderers have trouble controlling themselves due to the their emotional state from the frontal cortex. What causes the brain to behave this way? Well, Raine’s studies suggest that childhood abuse and childhood trauma is the cause for the emotions of a person to be overwritten. One of the patients Professor Raine scanned was Donta Paige. He was charged with brutally murdering a twenty four year old woman who caught him breaking into her house. As a child, Paige was abused by his mother and every time it got worse. His mother would use electrical cords, shoes or whatever was around her to abuse her son usually on a daily basis. "Early physical abuse, amongst other things could

Some questions that I am sure has passed through everyone’s mind at least once is why are people violent? Why do people murder or hurt other people? The answers to these questions are not easily answered. It is clear that not everyone is violent, and perhaps some are only violent under certain circumstances. Which then leads us to addition questions on whether we all have the capacity to be violent. Are we all naturally violent creatures with those violent tendencies buried deep beneath the surface just waiting for something to set us off? Even so, where do these come from? Perhaps it is learned behavior from our society through the media, movies, and music we are constantly surrounded by. Or do we have our genetics to blame? Though we may never find complete concrete answers to the above questions, nature, and nurture, or our biology and our society in which we live, surely provide evidence as to the cause of why we are violent as humans. I see them both being equally important in playing a role in why

Violence take multiple forms, many of which are covered in the nightly news. Murder, rape, familial abuse, bullying, workplace hostility, armed robbery—all of these are societal problems with far-reaching repercussions. There have long debates and discussions regarding whether nature or nurture influences individual violent behavior. People are concerned about what makes an individual to engage in violent behavior such murder or burglary among other types of crimes. They are also concerned about what makes people stop such behavior. However, there is no precise conception whether nature, nurture or both influence violence. Some people assume that, violent behavior results from individual’s life experiences or upbringing also known as nurture. Others feel that violent behavior is more complex and results from individual’s genetic character or nature. In other words, it is not clear whether violent behavior is inborn or occurs at some point in persons’ lives, but even it’s hard, emphasizing one and ignoring other influences is always an unwise way to go.

Risky behavior by children and young adults can include violence against others or lack of remorse for consequences. The type of faulty thinking creates stressors in children which can lead to the onset of many symptoms. Children who partake in video game violence are more likely to have increased feelings of hostility, decreased emotional response to the portrayal of violence, and injury that lead to violent behavior through imitation. A new study employing state-of-the-art brain-scanning technology says that violent video games can cause an individual to become violent. Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine say that brain scans of kids who played a violent video game showed an increase in emotional arousal and a corresponding decrease of activity in brain areas involved in self-control, inhibition, and attention. In short, when playing a violent game, an individual’s brain processes the game playing as “fictional”, but later can project some of the unknown effects as violence or aggression.

From the dawning of man, violence has always been one of the defining characteristics of humankind. Throughout all of history we see evidence of man's tendencies toward acting violently in response to his emotions - everything from anger, fear, to just plain enjoyment. But to where can we trace the true origin of violence, the place where it all begins? Does the root of violence stem from societal and cultural values or can we point the finger at a deeper cause, one with a neurobiological basis? Can we successfully predict the violent tendencies in individuals, and if so, how? And if there is a biological basis for violent behavior, where does that leave our society and our

The Anatomy of Violence presents the latest findings in the field of biological psychology and human behavior, focusing on brain chemistry, as it relates to human behavior, and offers great insight on how brains of those who commit acts of violence or crime differ from those who do not. Mr. Raine provides solid scientific data regarding the ways in which brain chemistry differs and how injuries can alter personality using medical MRI and fMRI and various neurotransmitter studies. A clear connection between human biology and behavior emerges, bringing