The Role of Amygdala Dysfunction in Criminology and Criminal Justice

This essay delves into the role of the amygdala, a crucial brain structure affecting emotions, and its dysfunction in relation to violent behavior within the context of criminology and criminal justice. The essay highlights that amygdala dysfunction, often stemming from factors like negative emotional projections, stress, and early life socio-emotional or physical exposures, can lead to increased aggression, psychopathic traits, and a higher likelihood of committing violations. Research indicates that individuals with lower amygdala volume or impaired functional connectivity may exhibit reduced responsiveness to others' pain and altered emotional processing, ultimately contributing to antisocial behavior. The essay also emphasizes the importance of addressing attention priorities and considering drug therapy in organic pathology conditions to manage and mitigate the effects of amygdala dysfunction on behavior.

0Running head: INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
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INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
A pair of almond shaped neuron set found in human brain affecting the emotions of
human body is known as Amygdala. It controls the emotions of human body and the dysfunction
can cause violence from the person. Amygdala plays an important role o convey the behaviour
and the different aspects of emotions. All most all emotions have a positive side and a negative
side and the intensity of the emotion which reflects the emotional instigation.
According to Aghajani et al., (2017) the study of different models showed that
Amygdala is a hyporesporesponsive stimuli to the negative responses and does not have
sufficient optimal functional interactions with paralimbic brain region. Thus it resulted in poor
associative learning, deficient affective reactivity and biased attention modulation. Abnormality
of Amygdala affects left rPFC and leads to negative circuitry responses and thus forming
pathophysiology of MDD (Kong et al., 2013). According to Márquez et al., (2013) impulsive
behaviour of human supported this model and effects on the antisocial behaviour of humans. The
Amygdala dysfunction can cause violence from human beings or any animals. It caused due to
the projections of the emotions in the brain which leads to fear, aggression and the anxiety to
person. When there is negative projection of the emotion in the brain it reacts negatively to any
action. Marsh et al., (2013) highlighted that phychopathic traits in youths showed that they are
less responsive to others pains and the intensity of the increasing pain. In human brain stress
activates the Amygdala on the basic level and drugs therapy can be considered in the organic
pathology condition off a human being (Luisetto, 2016). According to Larson et al., (2013)
Amygdala dysfunction involves in the processing of emotion to the human brain. In this study it
provides that priority of attention relates with the appearing and disappearing of fear of a
psychopath patient. The main problem regarding the Amygdala dysfunction patients are priority
of the attention towards them. When the priority changes their behaviour also changed towards

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INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
other person which led to the violation. It was shown in the research that those men who have
lower Amygdala volume increase the chance of committing violation in the future (Pardini et al.,
2014). These kind of men also have the psychopathic and aggression feature in them. Evans et
al., (2016) opined that Amygdala dysfunctions caused during the socio-emotional and physical
exposure in their early life. The differences create by stress in the childhood cause the
development of Amygdala dysfunction which contributes to psychological distress in the early
exposure of life. The violation caused by Amygdala dysfunction starts from childhood which
creates from the stress. Processing the face emotion depends on the blood oxygenation level of
the brain (Lozier et al., 2014). It causes violence and aggression based on the observation of the
whole brain. Yoder, Porges and Decety (2015) highlighted that socio-emotional process can
leave an impact on the psychopathy patients. The difference between the neural networks can
affects the functions of the brain and cause Amygdala dysfunction. Amygdala dysfunction can
cause violence against any human being.

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INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
References
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INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
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