Biological and environmental factors

Biological characteristics play in the origins of criminal behavior, independent of any association with physical appearance or mental deficiency. Some of these biological characteristics are genetic and inherited i.e. they are the result of the genes individuals receive from their parents at the time of conception. Other results from genetic mutations that occur at the time of conception or develop while the fetus is in the uterus. These biological characteristics are genetic but not inherited. Still others may develop as the result of the person’s environment, such as from injury or inadequate diet. These biological characteristics are neither genetic nor inherited.

ENVIRONMENTAL INDUCED BIOLOGICAL COMPONENTS OF BEHAVIOR.

There are many possible types of relationships between drug and alcohol abuse and violent behavior: biological, psychosocial, social cultural, economic. For example, violence and crime may result from addict’s need to get money to buy drugs, or from “wars” between rival drug gangs over the rights to sell drugs in certain area. Because the range of literature is so broad in these areas, we do not summarize it here. Instead we present a few brief comments on the strictly biological links between violence and alcohol or drug use. Alcohol is known to temporarily increase aggressive behavior in lower doses (when people get nasty), and temporarily decrease aggressive behavior in higher doses (when people pass out) many people believe that the increased aggressiveness at lower doses is because of alcohol’s dis – inhibiting effect – alcohol tends to release people from their inhibitions but there is little evidence for this an alternative explanation is that alcohol increases the production of the endocrine system, especially testosterone, but again, there is little evidence for this. Other possible neurobiological explanations involve serotonin functioning and EEG’ abnormalities, but experiments have yet to confirm any of these possible explanations. Some researchers believe that there may be a genetic basis for the relationship between alcohol and violence, but there is no confirmation of this to date. So while there is a strong relationship between alcohol and violence (probably the strongest of any drug), the reason for this relationship remains unclear.

 

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