Crime and violence

A psychologically normal 55-year-old man had a large acoustic neuroma removed from his hrain. Following operation, he became so violently angry and aggressive that he was unahle to work, and, according to his wife, became impossible to live with. After six months of misery, he was begun on treatment with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRl) to increase the levels of the neurotransmitter, serotonin, in his brain. After two weeks of treatment, he was able to return to his normal preoperative mental state, and go back to work. 

The increased levels of serotonin in his brain resulting from the SSRI medication counteracted the effects of increased levels of epinephrine and norepinephrine. Fear is produced by epinephrine anger by norepinephrine. The latter can result in excessive competitiveness, and lead to hate and violence. 

Violent criminal activity seems to be associated with high levels of epinephrine, and may have played a role in the behavior of people, such as Charles Manson. He took the name Helter Smelter from a Beatles song of that name in the early 1970s. Manson was obsessed with the song and used its title as a symbol of rebellion, evil, ghoulishness, bloody violence, race war, and homicidal psychosis. 

Whether one judges Charles Manson to be insane depends on the definition. He understood the difference between right and wrong, and today would be diagnosed as having an antisocial personality disorder, and in the past would have been called a sociopath or psychopath. 

Manson s evil behavior and violence were related to heroin abuse and LSD. His followers, who he called his family, were strongly influenced by these drugs. They were among more than 300,000 Americans who abused heroin to ease their troubled minds. Twelve million are addicted. 

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The use of alcohol and other drugs causes violence and crime. 

F The use of alcohol and other, but not all other, drugs is associated with violence and crime but does not directly cause such behavior. 

Discovering biomarkers of a tendency to violence and crime is now possible. As William James stated, we need to direct our energies to create the moral equivalent of war. He meant the war against violence. Chemical biomarkers measured by molecular imaging can result in better for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. 

Violence and crime occur during stressful social, economic and political periods. When cultural forces are weak, human behavior seems to regress to primitive aggressiveness and violence. Social constraints are weakened. In experimental primates, sham rage can be produced by removal of the cerebral cortex. After decortications, the animals respond with fear and anger to trifling provocations. Norepinephrine can produce sham rage. 

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