NCJ Number
134462
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 37 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1992) Pages: 237-251
Date Published
1992
Length
15 pages
Annotation
Antecedents of violent crime may include childhood victimization, head injuries, and alcohol and drug abuse. Biological factors in the etiology and prevention of violent crime have multiple links to psychological and social forces impinging on the individual.
Abstract
Neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric findings suggest temporal and frontal lobe dysfunctions in violent offenders. These dysfunctions appear to be more pronounced in the dominant hemisphere. Recent studies implicate disturbances of central serotonergic functions in impulsive homicide and arson. These results provide an adequate rationale for larger interdisciplinary studies using neurochemical, neuropsychiatric/neuropsychological, and psychosocial methods on the same subjects. There is increasing recognition that violent criminal behavior results from interaction among multiple factors, although systematic studies of such interaction are not yet common. A review of the literature on childhood victimization, deviant childrearing environments, medical and neuropsychiatric histories, alcohol, drug abuse, psychoses, and antisocial personality disorders is presented. Neurobiological findings in violent offenders are discussed for diffuse or multisite brain dysfunction, localized brain dysfunction, and serum glucose. The authors conclude that the literature on the psychobiology of violent offenders appears to lack a comprehensive theoretical base and has serious methodological limitations. 103 references (Author abstract modified)