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47. The important caveat that has to be borne in mind in interpreting the link between the low MAOA gene and antisocial behavior is that it accounts for only a small proportion of the variance. This is also true of most genes that have been linked to personality or mental illnesses.
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59. It should be noted that the MAOA–antisocial relationship has not been found in all cultures. Shih and colleagues did not observe such a relationship with either antisocial personality disorder or antisocial alcoholism in participants from Taiwan: see Lu, R. B., Lin, W. W., Lee, J. F., Ko, H. C. & Shih, J. C. (2003). Neither antisocial personality disorder nor antisocial alcoholism is associated with the MAO-A gene in Han Chinese males. Alcoholism-Clinical and Experimental Research 27(6), 889–93. Furthermore, the interaction between abuse and low MAOA has not been found in African-Americans in one report: see Widom, C. S. & Brzustowicz, L. M. (2006). MAOA and the “Cycle of violence”: Childhood abuse and neglect, MAOA genotype, and risk for violent and antisocial behavior. Biological Psychiatry 60, 684–89.
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3. MURDEROUS MINDS
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2. McDougal, D. (1991). Angel of Darkness. New York: Warner Books.
3. Raine, A., Buchsbaum, M. S. & LaCasse, L. (1997). Brain abnormalities in murderers indicated by positron emission tomography. Biological Psychiatry 42, 495–508.
4. Barrash, J., Tranel, D. & Anderson, S. W. (2000). Acquired personality disturbances associated with bilateral damage to the ventromedial prefrontal region. Developmental Neuropsychology 18, 355–81.
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9. Yang, Y. L. & Raine, A. (2009). Prefrontal structural and functional brain imaging findings in antisocial, violent, and psychopathic individuals: A meta-analysis. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 174, 81–88.
10. The specific subregions of the occipital cortex found to be overactivated in murderers were visual areas 17 and 18.
11. Understanding Murder: An Examination of the Etiology of Murder (2001). The Learning Channel and Cronkite-Ward Productions, August.
12. People vs. Antonio Bustamante (1990–91). Case number: CR13160, Imperial County, Calif.
13. Bechara, A., Damasio, H. & Damasio, A. R. (2000). Emotion, decision making and the orbitofrontal cortex. Cerebral Cortex 10, 295–307.
14. Understanding Murder.
15. McDougal, Angel of Darkness.
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17. Kray, R. & Kray, R. (1989). Reg and Ron Kray: Our Story, p. 90. London: Pan Books.
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19. It is not just that homicidal acts can have a mixture of proactive and reactive aggression. An offender’s criminal lifestyle can at times be at odds with their killing. Ron and Reggie Kray, for example, were organized gangsters who ruled the underworld in east London in the 1960s and 1970s, and participated in planned armed robberies and protection rackets. So while Reggie’s killing of Jack “the Hat” McVitie was reactive aggression in nature, his criminal lifestyle was predominantly proactive.
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26. Despite the lack of functional imaging research on murderers, there is a small literature on structural imaging. See, for example, Yang, Y. L., Raine, A., Han, C. B., Schug, R. A., Toga, A. W., et al. (2010). Reduced hippocampal and parahippocampal volumes in murderers with schizophrenia. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 182, 9–13; Puri, B. K., Counsell, S. J., Saeed, N., Bustos, M. G., Treasaden, I. H., et al. (2008). Regional grey matter volumetric changes in forensic schizophrenia patients: An MRI study comparing the brain structure of patients who have seriously and violently offended with that of patients who have not. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry 32, 751–54.
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35. Amen, D. G., Hanks, C., Prunella, J. R. & Green, A. (2007). An analysis of regional cerebral blood flow in impulsive murderers using single photon emission computed tomography. Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 19, 304–9.
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