Abstract
Although aggression and violent behavior are clearly heterogenous concepts with etiologies in which biology, environmental factors and social learning play complex roles, the debate about their causes frequently disintegrates into argument about whether biological factors should be considered at all. The arguments for not doing so include the fact that biology is generally outside social control, a view that such approaches are reductionist, and the problem of unfairly labeling particular groups. In spite of these reservations, there have been consistent attempts to assess the potential effects of genes, drugs, neural systems, hormones and diet on violence. The suggested reasons for doing so include the argument that, if violence is a complex phenomenon, one must consider the roles of all potential factors: the view that biological factors may have a predictive role (with all the ethical problems that would be associated with such properties) and the view that an individual with a greatly disordered biology could not be regarded as wholly responsible for his/her actions.
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Brain, P.F. (1999). The Role of Biological Factors. In: Van Hasselt, V.B., Hersen, M. (eds) Handbook of Psychological Approaches with Violent Offenders. The Plenum Series in Crime and Justice. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4845-4_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4845-4_5
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