The Myth Of The Born Criminal

"[I]s psychopathy a brain disorder, as many scientists now claim? Or is it just a reflection of modern society's deepest fears? The Myth of the Born Criminal offers the first comprehensive critique of the concept of psychopathy from the eighteenth-century origins of the born-criminal theory to the latest neuroimaging, behavioural genetics, and statistical studies. Jarkko Jalava, Stephanie Griffiths, and Michael Maraun use their expertise in neuropsychology, psychometrics, and criminology to dispel the myth that psychopathy is a biologically-based condition. Deconstructing the emotive language with which both research scientists and reporters describe the psychopaths among us, they explain how the idea of psychopathy offers a comforting neurobiological solution to the mystery of evil"--Preliminary page.

By some estimates, there are as many as twelve million psychopaths in the United States alone. Cold-blooded, remorseless, and strangely charismatic, they commit at least half of all serious and violent crimes. Supposedly, most serial killers are psychopaths, as, surprisngly, are large numbers of corporate executives. They seem to be an inescapable, and fascinating, threat in our midst. But is psychopathy a brain disorder, as many scientists now claim? Or is it just a reflection of modern society’s deepest fears? The Myth of the Born Criminal offers the first comprehensive critique of the concept of psychopathy from the eighteenth-century origins of the born-criminal theory to the latest neuroimaging, behavioural genetics, and statistical studies. Jarkko Jalava, Stephanie Griffiths, and Michael Maraun use their expertise in neuropsychology, psychometrics, and criminology to dispel the myth that psychopathy is a biologically-based condition. Deconstructing the emotive language with which both research scientists and reporters describe the psychopaths among us, they explain how the idea of psychopathy offers a comforting neurobiological solution to the mystery of evil. A stunning merger of rigorous science and clear-sighted cultural analysis, The Myth of the Born Criminal is for anyone who wonders just what truth – or fiction – lurks behind the study of psychopathy.

But Creating Born Criminals is much more than a look at the past. It is an exploration of the role of biological explanation as a form of discourse and of its impact upon society. While The Bell Curve and other recent books have stopped short of making eugenic recommendations, their contentions point toward eugenic conclusions, and people familiar with the history of eugenics can hear in them its echoes. Rafter demonstrates that we need to know how eugenic reasoning worked in the past and that we must recognize the dangers posed by the dominance of a theory that interprets social problems in biological terms and difference as biological inferiority.

Despite the popular perception that genetic explanations of the causes of crime are new, biological determinism is an idea that dates back to the birth of criminology. This is largely due to the efforts of Cesare Lombroso, widely regarded as the father of modern criminology. His 1876 work, Criminal Man, drew on Darwin to propose that most lawbreakers were throwbacks to a more primitive level of human evolution--identifiable by their physical traits, such as small heads, flat noses, large ears, and the like. These "born criminals" could not escape their biological destiny. The "scientific" appeal of these theories of what Lombroso called criminal anthropology had a powerful and long-lasting influence in contemporary Italy, Europe, and the Western world as a whole, and even today the stereotypes they created resonate in popular culture. Lombroso's influential ideas are explored in this book

Torrez studies the gritty role of hangings in frontier New Mexico.

The Myth of the Queer Criminal documents over a century of writings by sociologists, psychologists, criminologists, and forensic scientists, in Europe and the United States, who asserted that LGBT persons were innately and uniquely criminal. Applying the tools of narratology and queer theory, Jeffery P. Dennis examines the ten types of queer criminal that have appeared in seminal texts, both literary and scientific, over the past 140 years - beginning with Lombroso's Criminal Man (1876) and extending to postmodern criminologists and contemporary textbooks. Each type is named after its defining characteristic. The pederast, for example, was believed to be a master-criminal, leading vast criminal empires. The degenerate, intellectually and morally corrupted, was perceived as a symptom or cause of societal decay. The silly, lisping pansy was a figure of ridicule, rather than of dread. The traitor was murderous and depraved, prepared to destroy democratic institutions worldwide. The book aims to contextualize this mythology, revealing the motivations of the agents behind it, the influence of broader preoccupations and anxieties of the age, and its societal, political and cultural impact. This carefully researched, meticulously written history of the queer criminal will be of interest to students and researchers in criminology, gender studies, queer studies, and the history of sexuality.

This book offers a fresh and strictly biblical interpretation of passages which for centuries remained a mystery to the student of Bible prophecy, including "Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth." I will explore the myths and deception of Roman Catholicism and their direct connection with the idolatrous worship system of the Mother and Child of ancient Babylon. The claim that Roman Catholicism is the only true Church of Christ on Earth and the claim that man can't find salvation apart from her is the greatest deception the world has ever known. Centuries of moral crisis and sexual exploitation of children speak volumes about the true nature of the leaders of the Catholic Church. The abhorrence of marriage and the negative view of women recorded in the Canon Laws clearly reflect the Gnostic belief on sexual intercourse and the imposition of celibacy. Many people throughout the world equate "Christianity" with everything that is vile, contemptible and depraved. For centuries the Catholic Church suppressed basic human rights. The Church persecuted and brutally murdered those who held beliefs that conflicted with Church dogma. During the horror of the Inquisition tens of thousands of people were tortured, beaten, burned alive, or dismembered, all in the name of a fraudulent faith. Roman Catholicism is the false representation of truth and is the cause great many people have hated and repudiated true Christianity.

The situation of the Roma in Europe, especially in the former communist states, is one of the more important human rights issues on the agenda of the international community, especially in the Euro-Atlantic bodies of integration. Within European states that have Roma populations there is a growing awareness that the matter must be confronted, and that there is a need for a concentrated effort to solve social problems and ease tensions between the Roma and the European nations among which they dwell. This volume is the result of an international conference held at Tel Aviv University in December 2002. The conference, one of the largest held among the academic community in the last decade, served as a unique forum for a multidisciplinary discussion on the past and present of the Roma in which both Roma and non-Roma scholars from various countries engaged.

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,3, Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, language: English, abstract: For centuries the myth of Vampirism has fascinated and scared people at the same time. This may be ascribed to the seductive, mysterious and dangerous nature of vampires as well as the uncertainty of their actual existence. As a matter of course, people are frightened by things they cannot define scientifically or by common sense. If they do really exist though, then what are vampires precisely? Are they supernatural creatures, monstruous animals, or simply evil and twisted criminals? People have always tried to explain wrongdoings of mankind in various different ways. In the Middle Ages the common believe was that evil forces led innocent people to commit crimes. However, during the Age of Enlightenment people began to break away from religious interpretation patterns of crime and address themselves to the task of explaining criminal behaviour with empirical facts. During the centuries after the Middle Ages several theories of criminal behaviour came into being. The classical criminologists defined criminal behaviour as a free choice of people, whereas positivist biologists were convinced of the fact that people are born with a criminal predisposition and could not affect that with their free will in any way. This paper is dealing with one special example of vampirism, the lesbian vampire Carmilla, who seduces and kills innocent women with her „deadly eroticism“1. Joseph Sheridan LeFanu (1814 - 1873)2 published this chilling vampire shortstory in 18723, it was probably his most famous Gothic tale. Chapter II of this paper is going to deal with the developement of the aforementioned two main criminalistic theories (the classical and the positivist theory of crime) and their principal statements, concentrating on the Criminal Woman, the Prostitute and the Lesbian. In the next chapter the theories of the biological movement will be applied to LeFanu's shortstory about the vampire Carmilla, to determine whether she can be defined as a Born Criminal according to the Biologists of the 19th century. The term „born criminal“ was coined by Cesare Lombroso, when he discovered the features of the typical criminal man. In this paper, while examining whether Carmilla is a born criminal or not, the term will be used not only according to Lombroso's theory, but will also include some other opinions about criminal women, (criminal) features of the theory of degeneration and the reception of lesbianism in the Viktorian Age. [...]