Antisocial Behavior: A Summary

According to the Handbook of Antisocial Behavior, an estimated 15% of the prison population suffers from psychopathy. The book includes that psychopathic individuals are 50% more likely to commit a violent crime than non psychopathic persons (Craig 946). The authors of the Handbook of Antisocial Behavior, David Stoff, James Breiling, and Jack Maser, all have doctorates in psychology and over 20 years of experience in research of mental illness. The high number of psychopathic criminals has spurred the ongoing debate over whether criminal offenses can truly have brain defaults to blame. A psychopath is defined by Niklas Langstrom, forensic psychiatrist at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, as an egotistical, controlling individual

From the perspective of the brain with regards to neural connectivity, a faulty connection between frontal and temporal lobes is present in the brain of psychopaths. The connection flaw in the brain was studied by Jesus Pujol, a credible expert in Magnetic Resonance imaging and M.D. at the Hospital del Mar in Spain, and colleagues. They found a significantly reduced right UF tract in the brain of psychopaths compared to the the standard brain. The UF is the region of the brain that connects the frontal and lateral lobes and is known to control decision-making and impulse control (Pujol 920). The inability of criminal psychopaths to control their compulsions and make moral decisions is possibly engendered by the lack of connectivity in the right UF which controls these functions. Those with a decreased connection in the limbic system are also showing a lack of restraint and antisocial behaviors according to the study (Pujol 920). The brain needs to sustain multitudinous connections between different regions and the lack of these connections in psychopaths exhibits the cause of their impulsiveness and poor decision making skills. In order to repair these links, more research must be designated towards finding why psychopaths are born this

The flaws in the limbic system, unusual quantities of white and gray matter, and a disconnect in the brain network in psychopaths are reasons for their criminal activity. After thoughtful consideration, a reachable goal to help psychopaths is to study brain deficits more extensively. The complexity of the human brain is just beginning to be understood, meaning that disorders of the brain are even less explored. With more in-depth studies, the causes of psychopathy will be understood and solutions will be found to eradicate the problematic behavior of