Neurosciences applied to the criminological study of crime

The human brain it is something so complex and (almost) perfect that since the time of Hippocrates it has been a source of curiosity. With the advancement of science and technology, neurosciences little by little they have been solving the enigmas of the wonderful human brain trying to explain the reason for human behavior, including such complex phenomena as crime.

Why does a man commit a crime? What causes motivate you to transgress the rules? Why doesn't the idea of ​​being punished by the law scare you? How we share with you in a recent article, criminology is the science that seeks to answer the above questions having as object of study antisocial behavior, which is one that injures and goes against the common good. But to study crime and antisocial behavior, criminology relies on various sciences and disciplines among which the aforementioned neurosciences stand out.

Studies into the brains of criminals

One of the most famous cases that have been the object of study in neurology focused on criminological purposes, and which put concepts such as the

free will of the offender and concepts such as fraud and the guilt It dates back to the year 2003. In that year, a 40-year-old man who had never previously presented behavioral disorders of sexuality was sentenced for sexual harassment of minors.

Biological causes of antisocial behavior

A brain MRI on the subject showed a hemangiopericytoma in the orbitofrontal region which, after being removed, caused the pedophilic symptoms vanished, so he was granted freedom. It was not until a year later that the fixation towards minors began to be born again. After doing a new MRI, it was observed that the tumor had appeared again and once again, after being operated on, the symptoms disappeared.

More studies linking brain dysfunctions to antisocial personality disorder

Investigations that have been the subject of debate led by the North American Society for Neurosciences they suggest that there are deficits in specific structures of the brain that include areas related to empathy, fear of punishment and ethics among those who manifest antisocial personality disorder.

Similar studies have been presented by Adrian Rayne, a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania. This professor carried out an interesting study with 792 murderers with antisocial personality disorder, finding that their cerebral prefrontal cortex was significantly smaller in size relative to another group that did not have antisocial disorder. As if this flattery were not enough, it was also discovered that these individuals tend to have damage to brain structures linked to the ability to make moral judgments. These regions were the amygdala and the angular gyrus.

Endocrinology to the aid of criminology

Criminology has become increasingly interested in how the endocrine glands are related to criminal behavior. For example: we know that in a dangerous situation we can react by paralyzing, fleeing or attacking. From the first option we know that it is the cortisol mainly responsible for transmitting this stress response, however in relation to the last two is the adrenalin the one in charge of preparing the body for these reactions.

It is known with certainty that if an individual presents some dysfunction (for example, as a result of a trauma) that leads the individual's adrenal glands to increased production of adrenalin, the subject will have a special tendency to carry out aggressive behaviors, as they could well be violent crimes and against physical integrity. Regarding sexual delinquency, other studies carried out in the United States have shown that inmates who committed Violent sexual crimes show high levels of testosterone in their body in relation to the rest of the population penitentiary.

Eynseck and the arousal theory of psychological types

Hans eynseck Maintains that the nervous system of extroverts and introverts tends to one of two fundamental characteristics: arousal and inhibition stating that so-called extraverts are predisposed to inhibition while introverts to arousal, that is why the activities between each type are usually compensatory to their predisposition to stimuli.

For example, being a introvert more easily excitable, will tend to look for stimuli that are not so pressing and with it, quieter and more solitary activities; while the extrovert will need to seek the stimulus given its natural inhibition. In his theory, he establishes that extroverts are more prone to criminality because they are frequently looking for of exciting stimuli, however when an introvert takes the step to act he may commit more serious crimes. In addition to noticing a tendency of the extrovert for the sadism and psychopathy while the introvert tends to masochism and autism.

Criminals are born or made?

Faced with the eternal debate between sociologists, psychologists, biologists, among other specialists in human behavior, criminology has chosen to resolve this question, deciding that the offender is the product of both the predisposition of his psychophysiological, genetic and individual how the interaction between the social environment, anomie, culture, education, between others.

Therefore, to say that a certain neurobiological damage was the definitive cause of the commission of a crime would be not only brief but also inconclusive, since the subject needs a wide range of factors to commit the crime, in addition to opportunity, mobiles, etc. It is the job of criminology to detect how much "force" a criminoimpellent neurological factor presents to have been the cause of the crime, in joint work with the neurosciences that day by day reveal little by little the secrets of the nervous system and the brain human.