Unfair by Adam Benforado Page B

people, and those with antisocial personality disorder tend to have less gray matter in this area.There are also links between violent behavior and injuries to the prefrontal cortex, and between having a criminal record and reduced blood flow in this part of the brain.This aligns with other research showing that the prefrontal cortex plays a crucial role in impulse control, including a person’s ability to make prudent long-term decisions, delay gratification, and adhere to rules.
    One of the strangest aspects of prefrontal cortex dysfunction is that someone with damage in this region of the brain may understand the difference between right and wrong but nonetheless be unable to act in a moral fashion.Mr. Oft’s case would seem a prime example: he was aware that his actions were reprehensible even as he reported being powerless to control them.
    Given the complexities of antisocial behavior, it is not terribly surprising that other parts of the brain also influence criminality.The amygdala, for instance, is thought to play an important role in regulating aggression.Neuroscientists have identified this area as critical for understanding the beliefs, intents, desires, and emotions of others.When it is not functioning properly, a person may be at an increased risk of committing violence, because it is the ability to appreciate the shock, fear, and distress of others that helps prevent us from harming people.We have known for a long time that psychopaths have significant empathy deficits—and sure enough, their amygdalae are less active than those of people in the general population.
    Although we’ve been considering them in isolation, the parts of the brain are interconnected, and deficits in multiple areas may contribute to a particular criminal behavior.Pedophilia, for example, seems to involve an array of deficits at the neural level, including problems with the amygdala
and
frontal cortex thatinterfere with how a person processes emotional cues and sexual stimuli.
    But the location of the abnormality or dysfunction may affect the nature of the crime that a person is disposed to commit.Those who have deficiencies in their prefrontal cortex appear more likely to commit crimes that demonstrate impulsivity and emotional arousal (smashing someone in the head with a bottle after being ridiculed, for example).By contrast, those with demonstrated abnormal activity in their amygdala—but fairly unexceptional activity in their prefrontal cortexes—appear more likely to engage in calculated, directed, and emotionless aggression (gathering tools and stalking someone for weeks before brutally murdering her to steal her jewelry). Both dysfunctions might lead to murder, but they involve different neural structures and processes.
    Some researchers have argued that this may explain the contrasting behaviors associated with “acquired psychopathy,” which tends to involve reactive aggression brought on by immediate dangers or frustrations, and “developmental psychopathy,” which tends to involve instrumental aggression directed at accomplishing selfish ends.Those with acquired psychopathy have suffered an injury to their prefrontal cortex that makes it hard for them to regulate their emotional responses, while those with developmental psychopathy have dysfunctional amygdalae that prevent them from properly processing signals of distress.
    Television shows and movies lead us to regard psychopaths either as pure evil (think Michael Myers in the
Halloween
slasher films) or as hyper-rational actors who simply choose to do horrible things (think Hannibal Lecter), but the science offers a very different explanation for their behavior: they have abnormal brains that leave them without critical tools that the rest of us take for granted. As we’ll explore later, we are reluctant to embrace this biological account because it makes it harder for us to justify our harsh treatment of criminals. But it’s what the best evidence suggests.And