To What Extent is Criminal Behaviour Biologically Determined?

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Criminal acts (any behaviour which breaks the laws of the land) have, consistently, through history played a large role within society, with 8.5 million crimes committed in the UK alone in the year of 2013. Consequently, many explanations have been offered as to why they occur. Finding a definitive explanation would profit society greatly, since it could prevent anti-social behaviour and improve deterrent techniques. Determinism purports that all physical phenomena (events) have a physical cause governed by physical laws, and therefore since human actions are events, human action has a physical cause governed by physical laws also. In this case then, criminal behaviour is determined by biology, specifically, genetic heredity; criminals are ‘born’ that way.

Recent contributions to psychological research have suggested that explanations based on reductionist methods, rather than holistic ones, are most desired. Bem (2001) claimed that scientists, who used reductionist methods, published the most papers, were cited the most frequently, and were awarded the most grant money, inferring that when possible these methods should be used. The philosophical position of reductionism asserts that all phenomena are ultimately reducible to something more basic. It is often termed as the ‘nothing but’ theory. Ontologically speaking, that all facts are fixed physical facts and therefore, psychological states are ‘nothing but’ physical states. In reductionism then, like determinism, ideally, criminality has one explanation that clearly determines its cause and this ultimate explanation is a neurobiological one.

The first psychologist to suggest that criminal behaviour is biologically determined was Lombroso (1875) . He classified criminals i...

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... 65-71.

Crime in England and Wales, Year ending June 2013 (2013) [Online] Available at: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/crime-stats/crime-statistics/period-ending-june-2013/stb-crime-in-england-and-wales--year-ending-june-2013.html (Accessed 23/03/14)

Gomes, G. (2007). Free will, the self, and the Brain. Behavioural Sciences and The Law, 25(2), 221-234.

Gross, R. (2003). Themes, Issues and Debates in Psychology (2nd Ed.). London: Hodder & Stoughton. P241-263.

Herlihy, J. & Gandy, J. (2002). Causation and Explanation. The Psychologist, 15(5), 248-251.

Hollin, C. R. (2013). Psychology and Crime: An Introduction to Criminological Psychology. London: Routledge. p48-76.

Raine, A. (1993). The Psychopathology of Crime: Criminal Behaviour as a Clinical Disorder. San Diego: Academic Press. p50.

Siegel, L. J. (2005). Criminology. California: Thomson Wadsworth. p25

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