The Anatomy of Violence

The Biological Roots of Crime

By: Adrian Raine

Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley

With a 4-page full-color insert, and black-and-white illustrations throughout

Why do some innocent kids grow up to become cold-blooded serial killers? Is bad biology partly to blame? For more than three decades Adrian Raine has been researching the biological roots of violence and establishing neurocriminology, a new field that applies neuroscience techniques to investigate the causes and cures of crime. In The Anatomy of Violence, Raine dissects the criminal mind with a fascinating, readable, and far-reaching scientific journey into the body of evidence that reveals the brain to be a key culprit in crime causation.

Raine documents from genetic research that the seeds of sin are sown early in life, giving rise to abnormal physiological functioning that cultivates crime. Drawing on classical case studies of well-known killers in history—including Richard Speck, Ted Kaczynski, and Henry Lee Lucas—Raine illustrates how impairments to brain areas controlling our ability to experience fear, make good decisions, and feel guilt predispose us to violence. He contends that killers can actually be coldhearted: something as simple as a low resting heart rate can give rise to violence. But arguing that biology is not destiny, he also sketches out provocative new biosocial treatment approaches that can change the brain and prevent violence.

Finally, Raine tackles the thorny legal and ethical dilemmas posed by his research, visualizing a futuristic brave new world where our increasing ability to identify violent offenders early in life might shape crime-prevention policies, for good and bad. Will we sacrifice our notions of privacy and civil rights to identify children as potential killers in the hopes of helping both offenders and victims? How should we punish individuals with little to no control over their violent behavior? And should parenting require a license? The Anatomy of Violence offers a revolutionary appraisal of our understanding of criminal offending, while also raising provocative questions that challenge our core human values of free will, responsibility, and punishment.

Dry but exceptionally well thought and delivered.

Almost a textbook, very dry, but if this is a subject matter that you enjoy knowing something about it ends up being a great book, that you can learn plenty from. And it's not just talk and theories, there are a LOT of studies quoted to back up opinions.

The author will also gladly tell you about the shortcomings of cited studies and possible holes in his theories, he's not a know it all, he's an intellectual.

Very enlightening book on violence

The author, who is a research neuropsychologist, is an expert in the study of the biological basis of violence. He has clearly done groundbreaking research in the fundamental biological causes of violence. It was fascinating to learn how early in an individual's life the "seeds" of violence are "planted" from poor nutrition, lack of parental love and care, physical violence especially to the maturing brain, etc. in a baby or very young person. Violence is, then, caused by this toxic mixture of brain abnormalities and terrible social situation according to the author.

The author feels that we need to move away from strictly retributive justice by taking in to account the sociobiological basis of violence. Clearly, this is a tall order when the judicial system confronts such tragedies as mass shootings resulting in many deaths.

The author has certainly caused me to rethink my own views as to how society should deal with these criminals.

I slightly downgraded the performance as the reader, who is good, has a very pronounced British accent which I found hard to understand at times. But this is a personal preference.

Very insightful and thought-provoking book

This book is a must read, if you want to understand the biological roots of crime. It includes detailed discussions on how genetic, neurological and environmental factors play into making some people more violent than others.

Not sure if this kind of nonfiction has a "story"

But I found the content highly thought-provoking. I never realised how many factors came together to create crime, and it certainly persuaded me that a compassionate medical model to dealing with violence may be the ideal to strive for. Then again, I went into this book already disliking the revenge-oriented mindset of the US criminal justice system.

Violence is not just choice

Adrian Raine is a leading researcher in how the brain's development effects the way people think, respond to life's stressors, and process information. Research shows that people's ability to make good and right choices is not merely genetic, not is it all moral choice, but there are many factors that effect the development of a child's brain. Thought the narrator is not my favorite, the book is very well written and very engaging. I recommend this book for anyone in the fields of criminology, childhood development, medicine, and social welfare.