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Fresh Air. “Criminologist Believes Violent Behavior Is Biological.” NPR, 21 Mar. 2014, https://www.npr.org/2014/03/21/292375166/criminologist-believes-violent-behavior-is-biological . Accessed 16 Feb. 2023.

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Wang, Jack. “Scientists Studied the Brains of More than 800 Prisoners. Here's What They Found.” University of Chicago News, 23 July 2019, https://news.uchicago.edu/story/scientists-studied-brains-more-800-prisoners-heres-what-they-found.

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This website has brought up the fact that murderers don't have an absence or increase of cells packed in their brains. The more cells in one space help the thought process, which means the common murderer isn't thinking too much about what they are doing. It appears as though they just act on instinct.

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This source is reliable and although it doesn't directly support my claim, it doesn't directly combat it either.

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A pioneering scholar in the cognitive neuroscience of moral reasoning and social decision-making, Decety's research has focused both on psychopathy and on childhood moral development. The innovative study is a result of his longtime collaboration with University of New Mexico neuroscientist Kent Kiehl, who helps direct the nonprofit Mind Research Network.

"This work represents more than 10 years of data collection across eight prisons in two states," Kiehl said. "We are fortunate to present the world's largest sample of its kind and the results are quite remarkable."

Published in the journal Brain Imaging and Behavior, the new study relied on structural MRI scans of the brains of men incarcerated in New Mexico and Wisconsin, which the researchers had obtained through previous studies.

Participants were divided into three groups: 203 individuals who were convicted of or self-reported a homicide or homicide attempt; 475 individuals who had committed aggravated battery/assault, armed robbery or other violent crimes; and 130 individuals involved in non-violent or minimally violent crimes.

Researchers excluded from the homicide group those who had been convicted as accomplices, as well as those whose criminal files or court records indicated a strong possibility of accidental death.

Although previous neuroimaging studies also have examined brains of murderers, this is the first research that uses such a large sample and that controls for factors like psychosis-excluding individuals who suffered brain injuries or psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia.

In addition to Decety and Kiehl, other researchers on the study include first author Ashly Sajous-Turner, a University of New Mexico post-baccalaureate scholar; and Michael Koenigs of the University of Wisconsin.

However, the scholars note that they do not have enough evidence to draw a causal relationship between reduced gray matter and homicide. Ongoing research by Kiehl and Decety is following up a large sample of ultra high-risk boys-now in their mid-20s-to determine if the brain regions identified in this sample are predictive of future homicidal behavior. This work, the scholars feel, would help determine whether or not the results are causal.

Citation: "Aberrant brain gray matter in murderers," Sajous-Turner et al., Brain Imaging and Behavior, July 5, 2019. DOI: 10.1007/s11682-019-00155-y
Funding: National Institute of Mental Health, Macarthur Foundation Law and Neuroscience Project

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Scientists studied the brains of more than 800 prisoners. Here's what they found.

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In Jean Decety study, brain scans of incarcerated men reveal reduced gray matter in homicide offenders

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“7 Lessons from Murderers' Brain Scans.” Amen Clinics 7 Lessons from Murderers Brain Scans Comments, 1 Feb. 2021, https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/7-lessons-from-murderers-brain-scans/.

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In this article, they go on to talk about blood going into the brain. which does seem to have more of an effect than the number of cells. In murderers, the blood level is lower in the part of the brain that reasons and thinks rationally. The low blood flow could be causing that part of the brain to not work as hard and for them to think irrationally

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On Wednesday, May 20, 1998, 15-year-old Kip Kinkel was caught with a stolen gun in his locker and suspended from school, pending possible expulsion. Police booked him on criminal charges and sent him home with his parents. According to Kip's confession, his father was sitting at the kitchen counter drinking coffee while Kip grabbed a .22 rifle from his room then fired a bullet into the back of his dad's head. When his mother arrived home later that day, Kip met her in the garage, told her he loved her, then shot her multiple times.

The next morning, dressed in a long trench coat, Kip drove his mom's Ford Explorer to a spot near Thurston High School and parked it. Carrying a rifle and two handguns, Kip walked down a hallway and into the school cafeteria, firing off over 50 rounds that killed two students and wounded about two dozen others. A group of classmates, including one teenager who had been shot in the chest, finally subdued him.

After he was arrested and taken to the police station, the freckle-faced teenager lunged at an officer with a knife that he had strapped to his leg, yelling, "Kill me, shoot me." The officer stepped back and used pepper spray on him. Kip was sentenced to 112 years in prison for aggravated murder and was prosecuted as an adult. Under Oregon law he was too young to face the death penalty. Kip had once been voted as "most likely to start World War III," according to a Thurston High School student. Before the shootings, students at the high school said that Kip had talked about shooting people. After the shootings, officials found 5 bombs at the Kinkel residence, one of which went off when it was being disarmed.

Authorities found a note in the living room that Kip wrote, saying: "My head just doesn't work right. God damn these VOICES inside my head... I have to kill people. I don't know why... I have no other choice."

What drives some people to kill another human being? Or to gun down dozens of their schoolmates? America has been captivated by killers for centuries-digging into their family histories, psychological profiles, and so much more. Now, thanks to brain SPECT imaging, we can also see inside their brains. What do brain scans reveal about murderers?
America has been captivated by killers for centuries-digging into their family histories, psychological profiles, and much more. We use brain SPECT imaging to see inside their brains and have discovered 7 critical lessons. Click To Tweet
Amen Clinics, which has the world's largest database of functional brain scans (over 160,0000 and growing), has scanned the brains of over 1,000 convicted felons, including over 100 murderers.

Here are 7 lessons from the brain scans of murderers.

1. People who do the worst things often have troubled brains.

The brains of murderers typically don't look healthy. Brain SPECT imaging is a technology that measures blood flow and activity in the brain. It shows 3 things: areas with healthy activity, areas with too much activity, and areas with too little activity. On SPECT, the brains of murderers show abnormal activity in a variety of brain regions, especially the prefrontal cortex involved with empathy, judgment, and forethought. Look at this scan of a healthy brain compared to a scan from Kip Kinkel.

2. Murder does not always look the same in the brain.

You might think there is a singular pattern in the brain of killers, but there isn't. Look at the brain scans of two 15-year-old murderers, for example. They look very different. The brain scan of Kip Kinkel shows underlying damage and toxicity and is dramatically underactive. In the SPECT scan of Paul, a teen who murdered his mother and 8-year-old sister with a baseball bat, it is evident that his brain works too hard.

3. Traumatic brain injuries are a major cause of psychiatric illness and violence.

Few people know about the link between traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and mental health problems because most psychiatrists never look at the brain. TBIs are associated with an increased risk of violent behavior, including suicide and murder. According to research in The Journal of Neuroscience, the rate of aggression and violence after a TBI ranges from 35%-90%. The brain scans of several of the murderers scanned at Amen Clinics show underlying damage to the brain from past head injuries.

4. Left temporal lobe abnormalities are common in violent people.

Many Amen Clinics patients who exhibited violence (murderers, arsonists, domestic assaults, rapists, bombers, etc.) had left temporal lobe abnormalities. The temporal lobes are located on either side of the brain behind the eyes and underneath the temples. Assault, murder, rape, arson, and other criminal behaviors are often associated with problems in this part of the brain. Other scientific research confirms that temporal lobe abnormalities are associated with increased aggression and violence.

5. Traditional mental health care is failing.

A number of our nation's most notorious mass shooters-including Kip Kinkel (Springfield, OR, 1998), Eric Harris (Columbine, CO 1999), Seung-Hui Cho (Virginia Tech 2007), James Holmes (Aurora, CO, 2012), and Nikolas Cruz (Parkland, FL, 2018)-had seen psychiatrists or mental health professionals and had received "standard of care" treatment before their crimes.

The brain imaging work at Amen Clinics shows that cookie-cutter treatment plans for psychiatric illnesses don't work. Not all brain types react the same way to psychotropic medications. For example, SSRIs, the most commonly prescribed antidepressants, are considered safe for many people. However, in some people with low activity in certain brain regions, they may increase impulsivity and behaviors that are out of character.

Scientific research, including a 2017 study in , has shown that some antidepressants increase the risk of violence, suicide, and homicide, and the FDA issues a black box warning for antidepressants for people up to the age of 24. A growing body of neuroimaging research, including a 2020 study in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences and a 2019 study in The American Journal of Psychiatry, shows that brain imaging may help predict which patients will respond favorably to antidepressants.

6. Murderous behavior based on brain problems can't be fully excused.

Although brain dysfunction contributes to violence, it is not an excuse for bad behavior. People who commit heinous acts should not be excused and allowed to go home because they have a bad brain. Many people who have troubled brains never do anything bad. In judgment we must consider the brain. At this point in time, science shows that the brain is very important to moment-by-moment behavior, and it must be considered in sentencing people.

7. Brains can be rehabilitated.
Aggression, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and other mental health issues can't wait. During these uncertain times, your mental well-being is more important than ever and waiting until life gets back to "normal" is likely to make your symptoms worsen over time. At Amen Clinics, we're here for you. We offer in-clinic brain scanning and appointments, as well as mental telehealth, remote clinical evaluations, and video therapy for adults, children, and couples. Find out more by speaking to a specialist today at 888-288-9834 or visit our contact page here.
What if our society evaluated and treated troubled brains, rather than simply warehousing them in toxic, stressful environments? Based on over 30 years at Amen Clinics of helping patients enhance their brain health and improve their lives, it's clear that our society could potentially save tremendous amounts of money by making a significant percentage of these people more functional. With better brain health, violent criminals who get out of prison are more likely to be able to work, support themselves, and pay taxes. The Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky once said, "A society should be judged not by how it treats its outstanding citizens, but by how it treats its criminals." Instead of just crime and punishment, SPECT imaging teaches us that we should also be thinking about crime, evaluation, and treatment.

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On Wednesday, May 20, 1998, 15-year-old Kip Kinkel was caught with a stolen gun in his locker and suspended from school, pending possible expulsion. Police booked him on criminal charges and sent him home with his parents. According to Kip's confession, his father was sitting at the kitchen counter drinking coffee while Kip grabbed a...

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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.

Raine says this re-visioning of violent criminals could potentially help direct how we approach crime prevention and rehabilitation.

"I think prisoners ... [are] not motivated to change, really," he says, " ... because they just think they're a bad, evil person. If we reconceptualized recidivistic crime as a criminal disorder, would we make them more amenable to treatment?"

The key question that preoccupies Raine, however, is that of punishment and the question of the death penalty.

"Simply put," he says, "if bad brains do cause bad behavior, if brain dysfunction raises the odds that somebody will become a criminal offender - a violent offender - and if the causes of the brain dysfunction come relatively early in life ... should we fully hold that adult individual responsible?"

"I've got to be careful here. There's no destiny here. Biology is not destiny, and it's more than biology, and there's lots of factors that we're talking about there, and one factor like prefrontal dysfunction or low heart rate doesn't make you a criminal offender. But what if all the boxes were checked? What if you had birth complications and you were exposed to toxins and you had a low resting heart rate and you had the gene that raises the odds of violence, et cetera, et cetera, stuff happening early on in life. I mean, you're not responsible for that. Then how in the name of justice can we really hold that individual as responsible as we do ... and punish them as much as we do - including death?"

Interview Highlights
On studying psychopaths
"The most striking thing I found working one-to-one with psychopaths is ... how I really liked being with them, which is shocking and at the time surprising to me but, gosh, I loved dealing with the psychopaths because they were great storytellers. They were always fun. They were always interesting, and I was fascinated most of all with how they could con and manipulate me."

On the possible correlation between lead exposure and violence
"In the '70s, '80s and '90s, violence went up in America. What was causing that? Well, one hypothesis: It was the increase in environmental lead in the '50s, '60s and '70s. You know, lead in gas, for example. So, in the 1950s, little toddlers were playing outside, putting their fingers in dirt, putting their fingers in their mouths and absorbing the lead. Twenty years later, they became the next generation of violent criminal offenders because violence peaks at about 19 or 20. Then what happens is in the 1990s violence begins to come down, as it's been doing. What's partly explaining that? The reduction in lead in the environment. In fact, if you map environmental lead levels over time like that and map it onto the change in violence over time, lead can explain 91 percent of those changes. And to me, it's the only single cause that can both explain the precipitous rise in violence from the '70s, '80s and '90s and also the drop that we've been experiencing."
On what the fact that he has a brain scan similar to that of serial killer Randy Kraft means to him
"It makes you wonder, you know, what put me on one side of the bars in those four years in top-security prison when I was interviewing someone, when maybe with a different life course and other factors in my life, it could have flipped just the other way around? I've got a low resting heart rate. I'm a bit of a stimulation seeker, and, yes, I've got a brain scan like a serial killer. I had poor nutrition as a kid. ... What stopped me [from] becoming a killer, for example, or becoming a violent offender? I was anti-social from the age of 9 to 11. I was in a gang, smoking cigarettes, setting fire to mail, letting car tires down. ... But I've been intrigued: Why didn't I stay on that pathway? And it's an area that we need to do so much more on: protective factors. What protects some people who have some of the risk factors from actually becoming an offender? I think in my life, for example, I had parents who sort of loved me. I always felt loved. There was always a roof over my head. There was always a secure environment. And I got on with my brothers and sisters. You know, and maybe that's the critical ingredient: some love."
On changing his mind about the death penalty after being the victim of a violent crime
"At that point in time, I'd always been against the death penalty. I mean, I'm from England. We don't have the death penalty there, you know. You just think, 'That's crazy, having the death penalty.' After being that victim, I changed my mind about that because it made me feel more about victims' experience and how maybe - maybe in some cases - it could give them a sense of closure. Now I would not be ruled out of the jury on a death penalty case, but I'm not proud of that."
On reconciling the victim part of him with the criminologist part of him
"I'm a Jekyll and Hyde. So there's a Dr. Jekyll inside of me that's done the research, seen these risk factors, done longitudinal studies, documented these early risk factors beyond the individual's control that moves them into a criminal way of life, and that Dr. Jekyll is saying, 'You know, you can't ignore this. You can't turn a blind eye to the biology of violence and the social factors, too.' But there's a Mr. Hyde inside of me ranting and raving and saying, 'Look, I don't want sob stories. I don't want excuses. There's a cause for all behavior. We can always find a cause for behavior. ... It comes from the brain: So what? We found the cause. OK, great.'

"You know, what about the victim? What about how they feel and what about that sense of retribution, you know? What about deterrence? So, I mean, I go backwards and forwards on this, and I bet I'll change my mind again at some point in time. ... The scientist inside of me says, 'You know, that deterrence aspect - especially to capital punishment - that's not working,' and I don't think the science really shows it, too, but ... there's a part of me that says, 'It's an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and a pound of flesh: My throat was slit, his throat should be slit.' I mean, that's just how you feel as a victim. ... Kids need to be socialized and punished for bad behavior, and doesn't that also apply as adults? If you buy into the argument, that Dr. Jekyll inside of me says then all bets are off: Nobody's responsible. You can't have that. That's what Mr. Hyde says."

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Criminologist Believes Violent Behavior Is Biological

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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.

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An average murderers brain is wired differently than the common man. 

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An average murderers brain is wired differently than the common man. 

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Fallon, Jim. “Exploring the Mind of a Killer.” Ted Talk. Ted2009

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This is a TedTalk from a man who has trained in this study for a while. He explains that through all the scans, the same thing that shows up is damage to the orbital cortex.

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Transcript of "Exploring the mind of a killer"

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TED Talk Subtitles and Transcript: Psychopathic killers are the basis for some must-watch TV, but what really makes them tick? Neuroscientist Jim Fallon talks about brain scans and genetic analysis that may uncover the rotten wiring in the nature (and nurture) of murderers.

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The Mind of a Murderer. Interview by Michelle Ward, Discovery Communications.

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The series The Mind of a Murderer is about a woman, Michelle Ward, going to multiple different prisons and talking to inmates about why they did what they did. Figuring out what made them feel the need to take another human being's life. It's someone getting the inside scoop from the story maker themselves. Not whatever machines say.

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Serial killers-people who repeatedly murder others-provoke revulsion but also a certain amount of fascination in the general public. But what can modern psychology and neuroscience tell us about what might be going on inside the head of such individuals?

Serial killers characteristically lack empathy for others, coupled with an apparent absence of guilt about their actions. At the same time, many can be superficially charming, allowing them to lure potential victims into their web of destruction. One explanation for such cognitive dissonance is that serial killers are individuals in whom two minds co-exist-one a rational self, able to successfully navigate the intricacies of acceptable social behaviour and even charm and seduce, the other a far more sinister self, capable of the most unspeakable and violent acts against others. This view has been a powerful stimulus in fictional portrayals ranging from Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, to Hitchcock's Psycho, and a more recent film, Split. Yet there is little evidence that real-life serial killers suffer from dissociative identity disorder (DID), in which an individual has two or more personalities cohabiting in their mind, apparently unaware of each other.

Instead, DID is a condition more associated with victims, rather than perpetrators, of abuse, who adopt multiple personalities as a way of coming to terms with the horrors they have encountered. Of course a perpetrator of abuse may also be a victim, and many serial killers were abused as children, but in general they appear not to be split personalities, but rather people conscious of their acts. Despite this, there is surely a dichotomy in the minds of such individuals perhaps best personified by US killer Ted Bundy, who was a "charming, handsome, successful individual [yet also] a sadist, necrophile, rapist, and murderer with zero remorse who took pride in his ability to successfully kill and evade capture."

"a recent brain imaging study ... showed that criminal psychopaths had decreased connectivity between ... a brain region that processes negative stimuli and those that give rise to fearful reactions"

One puzzling aspect of serial killers' minds is the fact that they appear to lack-or can override-the emotional responses that in other people allows us to identify the pain and suffering of other humans as similar to our own, and empathise with that suffering. A possible explanation of this deficit was identified in a recent brain imaging study. This showed that criminal psychopaths had decreased connectivity between the amygdala-a brain region that processes negative stimuli and those that give rise to fearful reactions-and the prefrontal cortex, which interprets responses from the amygdala. When connectivity between these two regions is low, processing of negative stimuli in the amygdala does not translate into any strongly felt negative emotions. This may explain why criminal psychopaths do not feel guilty about their actions, or sad when their victims suffer.

Yet serial killers also seem to possess an enhanced emotional drive that leads to an urge to hurt and kill other human beings. This apparent contradiction in emotional responses still needs to be explained at a neurological level. At the same time, we should not ignore social influences as important factors in the development of such contradictory impulses. It seems possible that serial killers have somehow learned to view their victims as purely an object to be abused, or even an assembly of unconnected parts. This might explain why some killers have sex with dead victims, or even turn their bodies into objects of utility or decoration, but it does not explain why they seem so driven to hurt and kill their victims. One explanation for the latter phenomenon is that many serial killers are insecure individuals who feel compelled to kill due to a morbid fear of rejection. In many cases, the fear of rejection seems to result from having been abandoned or abused by a parent. Such fear may compel a fledgling serial killer to want to eliminate any objects of their affections. They may come to believe that by destroying the person they desire, they can eliminate the possibility of being abandoned, humiliated, or otherwise hurt, as they were in childhood.

Serial killers also appear to lack a sense of social conscience. Through our parents, siblings, teachers, peers, and other individuals who influence us as we grow up, we learn to distinguish right from wrong. It is this that inhibits us from engaging in anti-social behaviour. Yet serial killers seem to feel they are exempt from the most important social sanction of all-not taking another person's life. For instance, Richard Ramirez, named the "Night Stalker" by the media, claimed at his trial that "you don't understand me. You are not expected to. You are not capable of it. I am beyond your experience. I am beyond good and evil ... I don't believe in the hypocritical, moralistic dogma of this so-called civilized society."

It remains far from clear why a few people react to abuse or trauma at an earlier stage in their lives by later becoming a serial killer. But hopefully new insights into the psychological or neurological basis of their actions may in the future help us to identify potential future such killers and dissuade them from committing such horrendous crimes.
Featured image via Pixabay

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What can neuroscience tell us about the mind of a serial killer?

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Serial killers-people who repeatedly murder others-provoke revulsion but also a certain amount of fascination in the general public. But what can modern psychology and neuroscience tell us about what might be going on inside the head of such individuals?

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It doesn't seem to come from a trusted source or someone with the credentials to talk about this subject. The information could be correct but I have no real way of knowing if what they are saying is truthful or completely bogus.