Murderous Minds: Exploring the Criminal Psychopathic Brain: Neurological Imaging and the Manifestation of Evil

In this fascinating page-turner, neurobiologist Haycock tries to uncover the correlation between brain abnormalities and violent behavior, and whether one guarantees the other. Drawing deeply on recent brain research as well as on psychological manuals, he takes us into the minds and lives of Jared Loughner, Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, and others to illustrate the ways that brain research can aid both scientists and lawyers to determine whether a person is a criminal psychopath who recognizes right and wrong, or a psychotic person acting in response to a delusion. He observes that research “clearly indicates a strong connection between psychopathy and impaired function in parts of the brain that play a central role in regulating emotions and in how we react to emotions in ourselves and others.” For example, psychopaths often have trouble recognizing fear in people’s facial expressions and such a response may be caused by a damaged amygdala. Haycock concludes “that the neurological profile of the criminal psychopath is consistent with key features of psychopathy: a lack of moral sense and a lack of empathy.” In the end, though, he admits that criminal responsibility cannot be traced unequivocally to a neurological basis but that such research can certainly begin an important conversation in the legal world. (Apr.)