aThe Criminal Brain will have an important impact on social,
political, and moral debates as biological criminology becomes
increasingly prominent in coming years.a
--Simon A. Cole, author of "Suspect Identities: A History of
Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification"
What is the relationship between criminality and biology?
Nineteenth-century phrenologists insisted that criminality was
innate, a trait inherent in the offenderas brain matter. While they
were eventually repudiated as pseudo-scientists and self-deluded
charlatans, today the pendulum has swung back. Both criminologists
and biologists have begun to speak of a tantalizing but disturbing
possibility: that criminality may be inherited as a set of genetic
deficits that place one at risk for theft, violence, and sexual
deviance. If that is so, we may soon confront proposals for
genetically modifying aat riska fetuses or doctoring up criminals
so their brains operate like those of law-abiding citizens. In The
Criminal Brain, well-known criminologist Nicole Rafter traces the
sometimes violent history of these criminological theories and
provides an introduction to current biological theories of crime,
or biocriminology, with predictions of how these theories are
likely to develop in the future.
What do these new theories assert? Are they as dangerous as
their forerunners, which the Nazis and other eugenicists used to
sterilize, incarcerate, and even execute thousands of supposed
aborna criminals? How can we prepare for a future in which leaders
may propose crime-control programs based on biology? Enhanced with
fascinating illustrations and written in lively prose, The Criminal
Brain examines these issues in light ofthe history of ideas about
the criminal brain. By tracing the birth and growth of enduring
ideas in criminology, as well as by recognizing historical patterns
in the interplay of politics and science, she offers ways to
evaluate new theories of the criminal brain that may radically
reshape ideas about the causes of criminal behavior.
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