biological Explanations of offending behaviour: Genetic and neural

Gentic Explanations- this proposes the idea that genes are responsible for criminal behaviour. Twins studies with idendentical (MZ) and non-identical(DZ) twins were carried out and comparied. Adrian Raine (1993) reviewd research on delinquent behaviour of twins and found 52% concordance for MZ twins comapred with 21% for DZ twins.

Searching for Candidate Genes- Monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) Brunner did research on 28 male memebrs of a Dutch family who had histories of impulsive and criminal behaviour such as **** and attempted murder. Brunner et al annalysed their DNA and found abnormally low levels is MAOA. Cadherin 13 (CDH13) Finnish study by Tiihonen et al (2015) with 900 offenders found evidence of low levels in MAOA and also low activities in the CDH13 gene. They estimated that 5-10% of violent crimes are due to abnormalities in one of these two genes.

Diathesis-Stress- modern thinking. suggests that due to epigenetrics genes are able to be 'switched' on and off due to the epigenomes which have been affected by enviromental factors such as maltreatment in childhood. Caspi et Al (2002) longitudinal study in New Zeland (Dunedin to  be presice) that followed 1,000 people from they were babies in the 1970s to…