The Psychopathology Of Crime: Criminal Behavior As A Clinical Disorder

This book has two major goals. The first goal is to familiarize readers with the rapidly growing and increasingly influential body of knowledge on the biological bases of criminal behavior. Much of this research has been ignored or minimized in more traditional books on crime, yet if we are to fully understand criminal behavior we need to be fully aware of all influences that bear on it. By the same token, it is clear that psychological and environmental factors are also critically important in the development of crime, and for this reason chapters are also given over to familial and extrafamilial influences on crime.

This lauded bestseller, now available in paperback, takes an uncompromising look at how we define psychopathology and makes the argument that criminal behavior can and perhaps should be considered a disorder. Presenting sociological, genetic, neurochemical, brain-imaging, and psychophysiological evidence, it discusses the basis for criminal behavior and suggests, contrary to popular belief, that such behavior may be more biologically determined than previously thought.
Key Features
* Presents a new conceptual approach to understanding crime as a disorder
* Provides the most extensive review of biological predispositions to criminal behavior to date
* Presents the practical implications of viewing crime as a psychopathology in the contexts of free will, punishment, treatment, and future biosocial research
* Includes numerous tables and figures throughout
* Contains an extensive reference list
* Analyzes the familial and extra-familial causes of crime
* Reviews the predispositions to crime including evolution and genetics, and the neuropsychological, psychophysiological, brain-imaging, neurochemical, and cognitive factors