Learning Objectives

  1. Evaluate the role of nature and nurture in exploring risk factors for offending.
     
  2. Describe the various types of cytogenetic disorders and which type(s) puts a person at highest risk for criminality.
     
  3. Identify the hormones that play a key role in individuals who tend to engage in chronic offending. Make sure to consider females and the gender gap in offending as you read this chapter.
     
  4. Explain how neurotransmitters differ from hormones, and note which of the former are the most often implicated in criminality at either high or low levels.
     
  5. Identify the regions of the brain that criminological studies implicate for both structural trauma and functioning disorders.
     
  6. Compare and contrast the central nervous system and the autonomic nervous system and identify the ways both systems play an important part in individuals’ decisions to engage in criminal activity.