Cjs 231 - Biological Criminal Behavior

Biological Criminal Behavior

Michael Ferguson

CJS/231

July 27, 2015

University of Phoenix

Biological Criminal Behavior

Whenever a crime is committed throughout our world, we think about the reason why it happened.  Most of the time a crime is committed because of a specific reason, such as low income, problems with other people or even because someone has a nicer things then the other people.  No one really thinks about the crime that was committed from a physiological point of view until the crime committed is something other then robbery or gang related violence.  We think about the crime from a physiological point of view when a crime committed is against a child or mass murder.  There is psychiatric evidence that proves some crimes that are committed are caused by genetic or physiological issues.  I believe that having a genetic predisposition for criminal behavior does not determine the actions of an individual, but if they are exposed to the right environment, then their chances are greater for engaging in criminal behavior.  There is ongoing debate about the role of genetics in human behavior, although research does suggest that some inherited characteristics may contribute to anti-social or criminal behavior.  In contrast, there is relatively little evidence about a genetic connection with violent crime.

There are numerous cases where behaviors constituted psychopathy such as, “ Andrea Yates”.  There is documented evidence of psychiatric issues such as postpartum depression. Postpartum depression can affect women after childbirth.  Documents provided shown that since Andrea  had psychiatric issues prior to her taking the lives of her 5 children.  Similar cases of postpartum depression includes “Paula Thompson”.  A woman who tried to kill her twin babies was given probation by a judge who called it a cases of postpartum depression.  Paula was placed  on probation for 5 years with supervised visits  with her twins and a third child, a 3 year old boy.  Both cases were presented evidence of psychiatric issues called Postpartum Depressions.

Another case were evidence of psychiatric issues were documented includes “Charles Whitman”.  Whitman is known as the “Tower nicer”, who committed mass murder by killing 16 people.  Whitman’s psychiatrist “Maurice Dean Heatly noted that during an interview whitman was “oozing with hostility”.  During an autopsy after Whitman's death a cancerous glioblastoma tumor was pressed against the hypothalamus part of his brain that led some neurologist to speculate Whitman's attacks was cased by a medical conditions that effected his emotive passion.   Similar cases includes “Will Roberts Bales”. Bales Murdered 16 innocent civilians of whom nine were children.  The lawyers acting for Sgt Bales noted that he was suffering from brain damage following a head injury that he sustained on a tour of duty in Iraq.