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The Biological Roots of Crime
Pantheon
May 2013
On Sale: April 30, 2013
496 pages ISBN: 0307378845 EAN: 9780307378842 Kindle: B009Y4I4R4 Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
With an 8-page full-color insert, and black-and-white
illustrations throughout Why do some innocent kids grow up to become cold-blooded
serial killers? Is bad biology partly to blame? For more
than three decades Adrian Raine has been researching the
biological roots of violence and establishing
neurocriminology, a new field that applies neuroscience
techniques to investigate the causes and cures of crime. In
The Anatomy of Violence, Raine dissects the criminal mind
with a fascinating, readable, and far-reaching scientific
journey into the body of evidence that reveals the brain to
be a key culprit in crime causation.
Raine documents from genetic research that the seeds of sin
are sown early in life, giving rise to abnormal
physiological functioning that cultivates crime. Drawing on
classical case studies of well-known killers in
history—including Richard Speck, Ted Kaczynski, and Henry
Lee Lucas—Raine illustrates how impairments to brain areas
controlling our ability to experience fear, make good
decisions, and feel guilt predispose us to violence. He
contends that killers can actually be coldhearted: something
as simple as a low resting heart rate can give rise to
violence. But arguing that biology is not destiny, he also
sketches out provocative new biosocial treatment approaches
that can change the brain and prevent violence.
Finally, Raine tackles the thorny legal and ethical dilemmas
posed by his research, visualizing a futuristic brave new
world where our increasing ability to identify violent
offenders early in life might shape crime-prevention
policies, for good and bad. Will we sacrifice our notions of
privacy and civil rights to identify children as potential
killers in the hopes of helping both offenders and victims?
How should we punish individuals with little to no control
over their violent behavior? And should parenting require a
license? The Anatomy of Violence offers a revolutionary
appraisal of our understanding of criminal offending, while
also raising provocative questions that challenge our core
human values of free will, responsibility, and punishment.
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