Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction – Biological factors in crime causation: the reactions of social scientists
- Part I Methodological questions and implications
- Part II Evidence for the role of genetics
- Part III Psychophysiological and neurophysiological factors
- Part IV Neurological factors
- Part V Biochemical factors
- 13 The neuroendocrinology and neurochemistry of antisocial behavior
- 14 Testosterone and adrenaline: aggressive antisocial behavior in normal adolescent males
- 15 Personality correlates of plasma testosterone levels in young delinquents: an example of person–situation interaction?
- 16 Metabolic dysfunctions among habitually violent offenders: reactive hypoglycemia and cholesterol levels
- Part VI Treatment issues
- Author index
- Subject index
13 - The neuroendocrinology and neurochemistry of antisocial behavior
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction – Biological factors in crime causation: the reactions of social scientists
- Part I Methodological questions and implications
- Part II Evidence for the role of genetics
- Part III Psychophysiological and neurophysiological factors
- Part IV Neurological factors
- Part V Biochemical factors
- 13 The neuroendocrinology and neurochemistry of antisocial behavior
- 14 Testosterone and adrenaline: aggressive antisocial behavior in normal adolescent males
- 15 Personality correlates of plasma testosterone levels in young delinquents: an example of person–situation interaction?
- 16 Metabolic dysfunctions among habitually violent offenders: reactive hypoglycemia and cholesterol levels
- Part VI Treatment issues
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
“Antisocial behavior” is a very broad term encompassing acts ranging in severity from misdemeanors such as petty theft to murder. Thus a specific role for neurochemical or neuroendocrine factors certainly cannot be postulated or elucidated to explain such behavior in its entirety. Even when the term “antisocial” is used in other than a legal or criminological sense – for example, when it is applied in psychiatric diagnostics in an attempt to define and understand individual human behavior more fully – it remains overinclusive. From a clinical standpoint, the term “antisocial” most often signifies antisocial personality disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 1952, 1968, 1980), which in the third edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) is considered an “axis II” personality disorder, which may or may not coexist with certain “axis I” clinical syndromes or other conditions. Simply stated, this means that, according to current diagnostic nomenclature, an antisocial personality disorder theoretically could coexist with an organic mental disorder, substance use disorder, paranoid disorder, depressive disorder, psychosexual disorder, and so on.
For the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, the individual must be at least 18 years old and have a history, before the age of 15, of three or more symptoms that include truancy, expulsion or suspension from school, delinquency, running away, lying, substance abuse, thefts, vandalism, fights, and so on.
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- Information
- The Causes of CrimeNew Biological Approaches, pp. 239 - 262Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1987
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