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A Decade of Reading: Selections from Crime Times
Book Reviews, 2000-2010
Optimum Nutrition for the Mind, Patrick Holford, Basic Health
Publications, Inc., 2004
Holford—director of the Optimum Nutrition Center in London—explores how the food we eat affects our thinking, memory, mood, and behavior. Quote: “You can’t just psychoanalyze away deficiencies in essential fats, vitamins, minerals, and other key brain nutrients. We must think our way out of the box and wake up to the fact that chemistry directly affects how we think and feel.”
They Are What You Feed Them,
by Alex Richardson, Harper
Thorsons, 2006
Parents will enjoy this highly readable book on nutrition and behavior, authored by the chairperson of the Food and Behavior Research (FABR) charity in Britain. Quote: “Nutrients can actually affect the expression of many genes. This means that you might be genetically ‘at risk’ for something like ADHD or depression, but you won’t necessarily develop the symptoms if your environment (including diet) is good.”
Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed,
and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend,
by Barbara Oakley, Prometheus Books, 2007
This quirky, entertaining, and highly informative book covers current findings about genes, brain structure, and the neurological roots of psychopathy, borderline personality disorder, and Machiavellianism. Quote: “Just as a child needs the neurological structure of the eye to process information from the electromagnetic fields that shimmer through the air around him, a child also needs the structure of the orbitofrontal cortex and related neurological features to have a feeling of compassion. Psychopaths, it appears, may be born preprogrammed with a tendency to grow up ‘morally blind.’”
Dyslogic Syndrome,
Bernard Rimland,
Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2008
In this no-holds-barred work, the late Bernard Rimland—a psychologist and leading authority on autism and other childhood neurodevelopmental disorders—argued that childhood behavior problems stem from dysfunctional brains reeling under biological insults including environmental toxins, poor diets, and misguided medical interventions. Quote: “Our failure to understand that dyslogical brains cause dyslogical thinking and behavior has devastating consequences, because no amount of psychosocial intervention can correct the distorted thoughts of a malfunctioning brain.”
The Psychopath: Emotion and the Brain,
by James Blair, Derek Mitchell, and Karina Blair,
Blackwell Publishing, 2005
An excellent resource for professionals and students, this book is written by a team of leading investigators in the field of psychopathology research. Quote: “We believe that the amygdala is functioning atypically from an early age in individuals with psychopathy. Furthermore, we believe that it is this problem in amygdala functioning that leads to the psychopathic individual’s impairment in emotional learning. We believe that this impairment in emotional learning is at the root of psychopathy.”
Snakes in Suits,
by Paul Babiak and Robert D. Hare, Regan Books, 2006
This popular book about psychopaths in the workplace is geared for lay readers. Hare is one of the world’s leading authorities on psychopathy, while Babiak is an industrial psychologist. Quote: “Evidence [of the strong influence of genes on psychopathy] does not mean that the pathways to adult psychopathy are fixed and immutable, but it does indicate that the social environment will have a tough time in overcoming what nature has provided.”
Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults,
by Thomas E. Brown, Yale University Press, 2005
Explaining that “the core problem in ADHD is not lack of willpower, but chronic, often lifelong impairment of the ‘executive’ or management functions of the brain,” Brown describes how this impairment can make the responsibilities of adult life—holding down a job, raising a family, handling finances, and developing relationships—a constant struggle. Quote: “Many mental health workers assume that interpersonal problems are always caused by unrecognized emotional conflicts. For some individuals, however, interpersonal difficulties are more fundamentally rooted in an inability clearly to say what one is thinking or to understand correctly what others are trying to say.”
Hardwired Behavior: What Neuroscience Reveals About Morality,
Laurence Tancredi, Cambridge University Press, 2005
The author, who is an attorney and a physician, poses challenging questions such as: How does the physical brain work to develop moral decisions, and are specific moral rules innate? Quote: “How many of us would accept the idea that our personal choices in life are influenced, even determined, by brain biology? We resist this notion even if we’ve known older people, perhaps in our own families, who have suffered stroke or a serious disease such as Alzheimer’s, and we’ve seen how such physical brain injuries can affect not only their ability to move but their ability to think rationally.”
Evidence of Harm,
by David Kirby, St. Martin’s Press, 2005
A New York Times science reporter tackles a highly charged issue: whether or not the vaccine preservative thimerosal, which is 50 percent mercury, is one culprit in rising rates of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Quote: “Autism, by most accounts, is epidemic. And there is no such thing as a genetic epidemic.”
Biosocial Criminology,
edited by Anthony Walsh and Lee Ellis, Nova Science Publishers, 2003
A comprehensive, multidisciplinary review of biosocial criminological theory, this book is an excellent addition to the library of researchers. Quote: “Critics are quite right, there are no genes ‘for’ crime, and no biosocial scientist claims that there are. There are genes, however, that lead via various neurohormonal routes to traits (e.g., low levels of empathy, IQ, self-control, conscientiousness, and fear, and high levels of sensation- seeking, egoism, negative emotionality, and aggression) that increase the probability of criminal behavior.” (Anthony Walsh in his chapter, “Introduction to the Biosocial Perspective”)
The Blank Slate,
by Steven Pinker, Viking Press, 2002
An MIT professor, Pinker is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading cognitive scientists. In this book, he argues that parenting has far less influence on children’s behavior than do genes. Quote: “’All traits are heritable’ is a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much.”
Are We Hardwired? The Role of Genes in Human Behavior,
by William R. Clark and Michael Grunstein, Oxford University Press, 2000
Two UCLA professors of biology delve into genetic influences on aggression, learning, memory, and other aspects of behavior and cognition. Quote: “We can provide a secure and culturally enriched environment that will allow each child to optimize his or her innate abilities, but we cannot fundamentally alter these abilities.”
Sentencing: As I See It,
by Richard L. Nygaard, Copperhouse Publishing Co., 2000
In these essays, the author—a Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and a member of the Crime Times Professional Advisory Board—focuses on the shortcomings of offense-based rather than correction-based sentencing. Quote: “The search for truth about behavior may lead us to facts about nutrition, neurotransmitters, toxins, testosterone levels, brain damage, genes and a host of other variables, hitherto unexamined, that explain behavior; hence may explain crime.”
Bad Boys, Bad Men,
Donald W. Black (with C. L. Larson), Oxford University Press, 2000
Black, a professor of psychiatry, explores the biological roots of antisocial personality disorder. Quote: “As long as antisocial behavior is regarded as the product of bad upbringing, social and economic deprivation, and other environmental factors, families are more likely to help . . . antisocial hide from the world and from themselves.”
A Mind to Crime,
by Anne Moir and David Jessel, Signet Books, 1997
A geneticist and a television producer specializing in the law reference nearly 800 research reports to show the interrelationship of biochemistry, life experiences, and crime. Quotable: “Evil may be something no more sinister than a matter of loose connections. The devil may be the term for an accumulation of cerebral wounds.”
Change Your Brain, Change Your Life,
by Danien G. Amen, Times Books, 1998
Neuropsychiatrist Amen, a nationally recognized expert on the relationship between brain and behavior, outlines approaches to heal a dysfunctional or criminal brain. Quote: “Your brain creates your world—a radical statement about ordinary thinking. Yet it is your brain that perceives and experiences. Everything begins and ends in the brain.”
Guilty by Reason of Insanity,
by Dorothy Otnow Lewis, Fawcett Columbine, 1998
The author, a psychiatrist, discusses the roots of crime—including its neurological roots. Quote: “When the brain is out of whack, thinking goes awry; when thinking goes awry, feeling goes awry; when thinking and feeling go awry, behavior goes awry. That’s the way it is.”
Tinder-Box Criminal Aggression,
by Nathaniel J. Pallone and James J. Hennessy, Transaction Publishers, Rutgers University, 1996
Two professors look at the neurological problems that can predispose people to violent behavior. Quote: “The principal advance in criminologic theory during the past quarter century has been the marshaling of hard evidence that leads persuasively (if not yet quite compellingly) to the proposition that impulsive violence is attributable to neurogenic sources in a preponderance (perhaps even an overwhelming preponderance) of cases.”
Inside the Criminal Mind,
Stanton E. Samenow, Random House, 1984
This classic work by a clinician and researcher offers intriguing look at the workings of the criminal mind. A 2004 update is now available. Quote: “As it has turned out, conventional theories from modern depth psychology are largely irrelevant or misleading in understanding the criminal.”
The Psychopathology of Crime,
Adrian Raine, 1993, Academic Press, Inc
An excellent, in-depth look at factors influencing criminality, written by a leading expert on crime (and Crime Times Professional Advisory Board member). Quote: “Biological research into crime is important in order for the scientific community to have any chance at all of developing a comprehensive understanding of the causes of crime.”
Crime,
edited by James Q. Wilson and Joan Petersilia, 1995, ICS Press
This 650-page volume of writings from 28 national authorities on criminality is still 15 years later. A revised version, Crime: Public Policies for Crime Control, came out in 2002. Quote: “What we can understand, we can often improve. This has been the lesson learned from biomedical research in mental illness, substance abuse, and learning disabilities; it may in time be the lesson of research on delinquency and criminality.”
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