The Criminal Brain

Professor Adrian Raine, University of Pennsylvania, is a world leading expert on the psychology of violent crime and now an Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of York, spending a week each year in the Department of Psychology. On 6th October he visited York to give a public lecture entitled "The Criminal Brain: Implications for Prevention, Prediction and Punishment".

 

Neuroscience is documenting that brain impairments raise the odds of some children growing up to become psychopaths and violent criminals. Should we change their brains to prevent future crime and chaos? Can we use brain scans to better predict future violence in order to maintain a more orderly society? And if offenders are not responsible for their brain abnormalities, should we punish them as harshly as we do? These are the thorny ethical questions that society can no longer ignore as science increasingly dissects the biological roots of crime.