Do Criminals Have Different Brain Chemistry?
By: Nitzaliah Festinger

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have the mind of a criminal? Whether or not their emotions feel different? Or their thought process? Science can actually prove that criminal minds have major differences from the normal person, both chemically and physically.

In 2011 Judith G. Edershim conducted various studies using brain scanning technology. “One study discovered that the amygdala is not active in psychopaths who are thinking of moral dilemmas but is active in non-psychopaths pondering such
dilemmas.” (Harvard). This is critical because the amygdala is the part of the brain that makes critical decisions, and could explain why some people are more prone to committing crimes. However some further research has also shown that not all criminals have inactive, or lesser active amygdalas. Inactive amygdalas tend to be linked with psychopathy, while hyper active amygdalas are linked with violent, or impulsive behavior.

Along with these differences many criminals tend to have deficits in the prefrontal cortex. Similar to the amygdala, the prefrontal cortex controls impulsivity, and decision making, so it has a similar effect as the inactive amygdala.

Another brain scan study conducted by the University of Chicago analyzed the brains of men who had committed homicide, and found that their brains were generally less active than the average mind. All of the brains had a reduced amount of gray matter. Gray matter just refers to cells and neurons, so these people literally just have less in their brains. However the scientists were not able to find solid evidence that there is a link between the brain structure and the criminal activity.

All in all, while it seems there is a pattern with criminals and reduced brain activity, there is no way of knowing how their brains actually affect their actions. Many scientists think it is very likely the brain plays a role in these wrong doings. Brain scanning technology will allow scientists to continue to research and answer these questions, hopefully finding some dependent evidence soon.

Sources:
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/scientists-studied-brains-more-800-prisoners-heres-what-they-found
https://hms.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/publications%20archive/OnTheBrain/OnTheBrainFall11.pdf
https://www.google.com/search?q=do+all+criminals+have+inactive+amygdalas&rlz=1CATAVM_enUS1176&oq=do+all+criminals+have+inactive+amygdalas&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRifBTIHCAYQIRifBTIHCAcQIRifBTIHCAgQIRifBTIHCAkQIRifBdIBCTEwMDg4ajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&safe=active&ssui=on
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5460055/#:~:text=Group%20comparisons,0.03%2C%20Supplementary%20Figure%201).
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6640871/#:~:text=Research%20suggests%20the%20former%20may,the%20observed%20amygdala%20hypo%2Dreactivity.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1737651/