Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T07:38:15.836Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1.4 - Neurological Theories

from Part I - Psychological Underpinnings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2021

Jennifer M. Brown
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Miranda A. H. Horvath
Affiliation:
University of Suffolk
Get access

Summary

Neurological theories of forensic psychology pertain to the brain development and neurological functioning underpinning behaviour. This chapter discusses the impact of insults to normal brain development and functioning (broadly termed neurodisabilities) on criminal and violent behaviour, including childhood trauma, abusive environments, acquired brain injury, and neurodevelopmental disorders. These neurodisabilities lead to psychological and emotional dysregulation, alongside behavioural, cognitive, and social difficulties. They constitute an underdiagnosed silent epidemic amongst populations in contact with the law, and when unaddressed are key factors in a revolving door justice system. They create a ‘melting pot’ of multiplicative neurodevelopmental risk factors which make people vulnerable to reactive and aggressive behaviour. Crime has huge social, human, and economic cost; and understanding this ‘melting pot’ of vulnerability is key to developing rehabilitative justice systems and reducing cycles of reoffending by screening and providing proper support for those with neurodisabilities.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Berens, A. E., Jensen, S. K. G., & Nelson, C. A., III. (2017). Biological embedding of childhood adversity: From psychological mechanisms to clinical implications. BMC Medicine, 15, 135.Google Scholar
Blakemore, S. J., & Choudhary, S. (2006). Development of the adolescent brain: Implications for executive function and social cognition. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47(3–4), 296312.Google Scholar
Bower, C., Watkins, R. E., Mutch, R. C., et al. (2018). Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and youth justice: A prevalence study among young people sentenced to detention in Western Australia. BMJ Open, 8(2).Google Scholar
Briggs-Gowan, M. J., Pollak, S. D., Grasso, D., et al. (2015). Attention bias and anxiety in young children exposed to family violence. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 56(11), 11941201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caccioppo, J. T., Caccioppo, S., & Boomsma, D. (2014). Evolutionary mechanisms for loneliness. Cognition and Emotion, 28(1), 321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caccioppo, J. T., Caccioppo, S., Capitano, J. P., & Cole, S. W. (2015). The neuroendocrinology of social isolation. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 733767.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casey, B. J., Jones, R. M., & Hare, T. A. (2008). The adolescent brain. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1124, 111125.Google Scholar
Chaudhury, S., Sharma, V., Kumar, V., Nag, T. C., & Wadhwa, S. (2016). Activity-dependant synaptic plasticity modulates the critical phase of brain development. Brain Development, 38(4), 355363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chitsabesan, P., & Hughes, N. (2016). Mental health needs and neurodevelopmental disorders amongst young offenders: implications for policy and practice. In Winstone, J. (Ed.), Mental health, crime and criminal justice. Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Chitsabesan, P., Lennox, C., Williams, H., Tariq, O., & Shaw, J. (2015). Traumatic brain injury in juvenile offenders: Findings from the Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool study and the development of a specialist Linkworker service. Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, 30(2), 106115.Google Scholar
Clasby, B., Bennett, M., Hughes, N., Hodges, E., Meadham, H., Hinder, D., Williams, H., & Mewse, A. (2019). The consequences of traumatic brain injury from the classroom to the courtroom: Understanding pathways through structural equation modelling. Disability & Rehabilitation, 42(17), 24122421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cochran, J. C., Siennick, S. E., & Mears, D. P. (2018). Social exclusion and parental incarceration impacts on adolescent’s networks and school engagement. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 80(2), 478498.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Corps, K. N., Roth, T. L., & McGavern, D. B. (2015). Inflammation and neuroprotection in traumatic brain injury. JAMA Neurology, 72(3), 355362.Google Scholar
Decety, J. (2010). The neurodevelopment of empathy in humans. Developmental Neuroscience, 32(4), 257267.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De La Monte, S., & Kril, J. J. (2014). Human alcohol-related neuropathology. Acta Neuropathologica, 127, 7190.Google Scholar
DeLuca, C. R., & Leventer, R. J. (2008). Developmental trajectories of executive functions across the lifespan. In Anderson, V., Jacobs, R., & Anderson, P. J. (Eds.), Executive functions and the frontal lobes, Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Eagleman, D., & Downar, J. (2015). Brain and behaviour: a cognitive neuroscience perspective. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ekinci, O., Okuyaz, C., Gunes, S., Ekinci, N., Orekeci, G., Teke, H., & Direk, M. C. (2017). Sleep and quality of life in children with traumatic brain injury and ADHD. International Journal of Psychiatry Medicine, 52(1), 7287.Google Scholar
Ernst, M., & Luciana, M. (2015). Neuroimaging of the dopamine/reward system in adolescent drug use. CNS Spectrums, 20(4), 427441.Google Scholar
Fleminger, S., & Ponsford, J. (2005). Long term outcomes after traumatic brain injury. BMJ, 331, 14191420.Google Scholar
Fontes, L. F. C., Conceição, O. C., & Machado, S. (2017). Childhood and adolescent sexual abuse, victim profile, and its impact on mental health. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 22(9), 29192928.Google Scholar
Fosnocht, A., Lucerne, K. E., Ellis, A. S., Olimpo, N. A., & Briand, L. A. (2019). Adolescent social isolation increases cocaine seeking in male and female mice. Behavioural Brain Research, 359, 589596.Google Scholar
Frost, R., & McNaughton, N. (2017). The neural basis of delay discounting: A review and preliminary model. Neuroscience & Bio-behavioural Reviews, 79, 4865.Google Scholar
Gardner, M., & Steinberg, L. (2005). Peer influence on risk taking, risk preference, and risky decision making in adolescence and adulthood: An experimental study. Developmental Psychology, 41(4), 625635.Google Scholar
Giancola, P. R., & Parker, A. M. (2001). A six-year prospective study of pathways toward drug use in adolescent boys with and without a family history of substance use disorders. Journal of Studies and Alcohol, 62(2), 166178.Google Scholar
Haines, K. L., Nguyen, B. P., Vatsaas, C., Alger, A., Brooks, K., & Agarwal, S. K. (2019). Socioeconomic status affects outcomes after severity-stratified traumatic brain injury. Journal of Surgical Research, 235, 131140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hebert, M., Langevin, R., Guidi, E., Bernard-Bonnin, A. C., & Allard-Dansereau, C. (2017). Sleep problems and dissociation in preschool victims of sexual abuse. Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, 18(4), 507521.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heck, A., Chroust, A., White, H., Jubran, R., & Bhatt, R. S. (2018). Development of body emotion perception in infancy: From discrimination to recognition. Infant Behaviour and Development, 50, 4251.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hughes, N., Clasby, B., Chitsabesan, P., & Williams, W. H. (2016). A systematic review of the prevalence of foetal alcohol syndrome disorders among young people in the criminal justice system. Cogent Psychology, 3(1). Accessed at: https://research.birmingham.ac.uk/portal/files/29719000/A_systematic_review_of_the_prevalence_of_foetal_alcohol_syndrome_disorders_among_young_people_in_the_criminal_justice_system.pdfCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, N., & Pierse-O’Bryne, K. (2016). Disabled Inside: neurodevelopmental impairments among young people in custody. Prison Services Journal, 226, 1421.Google Scholar
Huh, H. J., Kim, K. H., Lee, H. K., & Chae, J, H. (2017). The relationship between childhood trauma and the severity of adulthood depression and anxiety symptoms in a clinical sample: The mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Journal of Affective Disorders, 213, 4450.Google Scholar
Ilie, G., Mann, R. E., Hamilton, H., Adlaf, E. M., Boak, A., Asbridge, M., Rehm, J., & Cusimano, M. D. (2015). Substance use and related harms among adolescents with and without traumatic brain injury. Journal of Head Trauma and Rehabilitation, 30(5), 293301.Google Scholar
Johnson, S., Blum, R. W., & Giedd, J. N. (2009). Adolescent maturity and the brain: The promise and pitfalls of neuroscience research in adolescent health policy. Journal of Adolescent Health, 45(3), 216221.Google Scholar
Katzman, M. A., Bilkey, T., Chokka, P. R., Fallu, A., & Klassen, L. (2017). Adult ADHD and comorbid disorders: Clinical implications of a dimensional approach. BMC Psychiatry, 17, 302.Google Scholar
Kessler, R. C., McLaughlin, K. A., & Williams, D. R. (2010). Childhood adversities and adult psychopathology in the WHO world mental health surveys. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 197(5), 378385.Google Scholar
Keysers, C., & Perret, D. I. (2004). Demystifying social cognition: A Hebbian perspective. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(11), 501507.Google Scholar
Krause-Utz, A., & Elzinga, B. (2018). Current understandings of the neural mechanisms of dissociation in borderline personality disorder. Current Behavioural Neuroscience Reports, 5, 113123.Google Scholar
Lee, C., Derefinko, C. J., Milich, R., Lynam, D. R., & DeWall, C. N. (2017). Longitudinal and reciprocal relations between delay discounting and crime. Personality and Individual Differences, 111, 193198.Google Scholar
Lesscher, H. M., Spoelder, M., Rotte, M. D., et al. (2015). Early social isolation augments alcohol consumption in rats. Behavioural Pharmacology, 26(1), 673680.Google Scholar
Lin, Y., Xu, J., Huang, J., Jia, Y., Zhang, J., Yan, C., & Zhang, J. (2017). Effects of prenatal and postnatal maternal stress on toddler’s cognitive and temperamental development. Journal of Affective Disorders, 207, 917.Google Scholar
Lisieski, M. J., Eagle, A. L., Conti, A. C., Liberzon, I., & Perrine, S. A. (2018). Single-prolonged stress: A review of two decades of progress in a rodent model of post-traumatic stress disorder. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 9, 122.Google Scholar
Luo, Y., Fernandez, G., Hermans, E., Vogel, S., Zhang, Y., Li, H., & Klumpers, F. (2018). How acute stress may enhance subsequent memory for threat stimuli outside the focus of attention: DLPFC-amygdala decoupling. Neuroimage, 171, 311322.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martin, J., Kauer, S. D., & Sanci, L. (2016). Road safety risks in young people attending general practice: A cross-sectional study of road risks and associated health risks. Australian Family Physician, 45(9), 666672.Google Scholar
Minami, C., Shimizu, T., & Mitani, A. (2017). Neural activity in the prelimbic and infralimbic cortices of freely moving rats during social interaction: Effect of isolation rearing. PlOS One, 12(5).Google Scholar
McLaughlin, K. A., Sheridan, M. A., Winter, W., Fox, N. A., Zeanah, C. H., & Nelson, C. A. (2014). Widespread reductions in cortical thickness following severe early-life deprivation: A neurodevelopmental pathway to ADHD. Biological Psychiatry, 76(8), 629638.Google Scholar
Nuno, M., Ugiliweneza, B., Zepeda, V., et al. (2018). Long-term impact of abusive head trauma in young children. Child Abuse & Neglect, 85, 3946.Google Scholar
Passmore, H. M., Mutch, R. C., Burns, S., Watkins, R., Carapetis, J., Hall, G., & Bower, C. (2018). Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD): Knowledge, attitudes, experiences and practices of the Western Australia youth custodial workforce. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 59, 4452.Google Scholar
Pauwels, L., Chalavi, S., Swinnen, S, P. (2018). Aging and brain plasticity. Aging, 10(8), 17891790.Google Scholar
Pitman, A., Mann, F., Johnson, S. (2018). Advancing our understanding of loneliness and mental health problems in young people. The Lancet Psychiatry, 5(12), 955956.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poole, K. L., Santesso, D. L., Van Lieshout, R. J., & Schmidt, L. A. (2018). Trajectories of frontal brain activity and socio-emotional development in children. Developmental Psychobiology, 60(4), 353363.Google Scholar
Punamaki, R-L., Diab, S., Isosavi, S., Kuittinen, S., & Qouta, S. (2018). Maternal pre- and post-natal mental health and infant development in war conditions: The Gaza infant study. Psychological Trauma, 10(2), 144153.Google Scholar
Russo, M. V., & McGavern, D. B. (2016). Inflammatory neuroprotection following traumatic brain injury. Science, 353(6301), 783785.Google Scholar
Shaheen, S. (2014). How child’s play impacts executive function-related behaviours. Applied Neuropsychology – Child, 3(3), 182187.Google Scholar
Skaper, S. D., Facci, L., Zusso, M., & Guisti, P. (2018). An inflammation-centric view of neurological disease: Beyond the neuron. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, 12, 126.Google Scholar
Spear, L. P. (2013). Adolescent neurodevelopment. Journal of Adolescent Health, 52(2), 713.Google Scholar
Tonks, J., Williams, W. H., Mounce, L., Harris, D., Frampton, I., Yates, P., & Slater, A. (2011). ‘Trials B or not trials B?’ Is attention switching a useful outcome measure? Brain Injury, 25(10), 958964.Google Scholar
Tonks, J., Yates, P., Slater, A., Williams, W. H., Frampton, I. (2009). Visual-spatial functioning as an early indicator of socio-emotional difficulties. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 12(5), 313319.Google Scholar
Tonks, J., Yates, P., Williams, W. H., Frampton, I., & Slater, A. (2010). Peer-relationship difficulties in children with brain injuries: Comparisons with children in mental health services and healthy controls. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 20(6), 922935.Google Scholar
Wamser-Nanney, R., & Chesher, R. E. (2018). Trauma characteristics and sleep impairment among trauma-exposed children. Child Abuse and Neglect, 76, 469479.Google Scholar
White, S. F., Clanton, R., Brislin, S. J., Meffert, H., Hwang, S., Sinclair, S., & Blair, J. R. (2014). Reward: Empirical contribution. Temporal discounting and conduct disorder in adolescents. Journal of Personality Disorders, 28(1), 518.Google Scholar
Whittle, S., Lichter, R., Dennison, M., et al. (2014). Structural brain development and depression onset during adolescence: A prospective longitudinal study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 171(5), 564571.Google Scholar
Williams, C., Llewellyn-Wood, R., Alderman, N., & Worthington, A. The psychosocial impact of neurobehavioural disability. Frontiers in Neurology, 11, 119.Google Scholar
Williams, W. H., Chitsabesan, P., Fazel, S., McMillan, T., Hughes, N., Parsonage, M., & Tonks, J. (2018). Traumatic brain injury: A potential cause of violent crime? Lancet Psychiatry, 5(10), 836844.Google Scholar
Witt, S., Weitkamper, A., Neumann, H., Lucke, T., & Zmyj, N. (2018). Delayed theory of mind development in children born preterm: A longitudinal study. Early Human Development, 127, 8589.Google Scholar
Yogman, M., Garner, A., Hutchinson, J., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (2018). The power of play: A paediatric role in enhancing development in young children. Paediatrics, 142(3).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×