Criminologist Believes Violent Behavior Is Biological

NPR Fresh Air interview, aired on April 30, 2013 and March 21, 2014.

Twenty years ago, when brain imaging made it possible for researchers to study the minds of violent criminals and compare them to the brain imaging of “normal” people, a whole new field of research — neurocriminology — opened up.

Adrian Raine was the first person to conduct a brain imaging study on murderers and has since continued to study the brains of violent criminals and psychopaths. His research has convinced him that while there is a social and environmental element to violent behavior, there’s another side of the coin, and that side is biology.

“Just as there’s a biological basis for schizophrenia and anxiety disorders and depression, I’m saying here there’s a biological basis also to recidivistic violent offending,” Raine, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and author of the book The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime, tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross.

Bill Newsome, “Neuroscience for a New Age: How Brain Science Will Shape Our Future”

Formed in the spring of 2013, the Stanford Neurosciences Institute aims to solve problems of the brain. In this talk, Professor Bill Newsome discusses neuroscience’s implications in health, law and business.

Bill Newsome is the Harman Family Provostial Professor, the director of the Stanford Neurosciences Institute, and a professor of neurobiology and, by courtesy, of psychology. A leading investigator in sensory and cognitive neuroscience, he teaches graduate and medical courses in neuroscience, and co-teaches an undergraduate course on social and ethical issues in the neurosciences. Professor Newsome’s honors include the Rank Prize for Optoelectronics, the Spencer Award for highly original contributions to research in neurobiology, the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association, the Dan David Prize and the Karl Lashley Award of the American Philosophical Society.