Neurocriminology: Using knowledge of brain structure and function to explain crime, substance abuse, and offending

Recent developments in neuroscience have greatly helped criminologists explain variations in crime, substance abuse, and offending. The melding of neuroscience and traditional criminology has led to the birth of neurocriminology, which studies how variations in brain structure and function interact with environmental forces to explain antisocial behaviour. This chapter will discuss salient portions of brain anatomy and systems that relate to bad behaviour and how certain environmental factors moderate the effect of brain characteristics on antisocial outcomes such as crime and substance abuse. Policy implications informed by the neurocriminological perspective are discussed at the end of this chapter.