The Anatomy of Violence

The Anatomy of Violence
Adrian Raine

Brain science has become a hot subject for publishers lately. In The Anatomy of Violence, Adrian Raine offers a thorough guide to the latest findings in the field of neurocriminology, showing how genetics and brain structure interact with environmental causes to produce violence and anti-social behaviour. It’s clear that in the old debate of nature vs. nurture the pendulum has of late been swinging more to biological explanations, and that’s where Raine himself tends to come down, but in his “biosocial” formulations he finds a place for sociological and cultural factors as well. After providing a good primer on a complex subject, he concludes with a look at some of the moral and practical issues that his findings raise for our system of criminal justice – issues that are certain to become hot buttons in the near future.