The Criminal Brain: Understanding Biological Theories of Crime

The Criminal Brain: Understanding Biological Theories of Crime

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What is the relationship between criminality and biology? Nineteenth-century phrenologists insisted that criminality was innate, a trait inherent in the offender's brain matter. While they were eventually repudiated as pseudo-scientists and self-deluded charlatans, today the pendulum has swung back. Both criminologists and biologists have begun to speak of a tantalizing but disturbing possibility: that criminality may be inherited as a set of genetic deficits that place one at risk for theft, violence, and sexual deviance. If that is so, we may soon confront proposals for genetically modifying at risk fetuses or doctoring up criminals so their brains operate like those of law-abiding citizens. In The Criminal Brain, well-known criminologist Nicole Rafter traces the sometimes violent history of these criminological theories and provides an introduction to current biological theories of crime, or biocriminology, with predictions of how these theories are likely to develop in the future.What do these new theories assert? Are they as dangerous as their forerunners, which the Nazis and other eugenicists used to sterilize, incarcerate, and even execute thousands of supposed born criminals? How can we prepare for a future in which leaders may propose crime-control programs based on biology? Enhanced with fascinating illustrations and written in lively prose, The Criminal Brain examines these issues in light of the history of ideas about the criminal brain. By tracing the birth and growth of enduring ideas in criminology, as well as by recognizing historical patterns in the interplay of politics and science, she offers ways to evaluate new theories of the criminal brain that may radically reshape ideas about the causes of criminal behavior.

 

The International Encyclopedia of Biological Anthropology

The International Encyclopedia of Biological Anthropology

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The International Encyclopedia of Biological Anthropology features over 450 entries contributed by an international team of scholars, and presents an extensive and invaluable survey of this fascinating field.The EncyclopediaRepresents the first comprehensive encyclopedic reference relating to biological anthropology Features more than 450 entries covering topics ranging from ongoing human evolution, paleoanthropology, and non-human primates to paleopathology, forensic anthropology, and bioarchaeology Includes interdisciplinary coverage of primatology, human biology, paleoanthropology, bioarchaeology, anthropological genetics, and the history of biological anthropology An indispensable resource for undergraduate students and scholars engaged in the study and practice of biological anthropology and interrelated fields and disciplines. This work is also available as an online resource at: www.encyclopediaofbiologicalanthropol....

 

Dynamics of Southwestern Prehistory (Smithsonian Series in Archaeological Inquiry)

Dynamics of Southwestern Prehistory (Smithsonian Series in Archaeological Inquiry)

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Focusing on the thousand years preceding the first Spanish probes northward from Mexico, these essays disclose as well the changing character of archaeological inquiry.

 

Yanomamo, the Fierce People (Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology)

Yanomamo, the Fierce People (Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology)

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Based on the author's extensive fieldwork, this classic ethnography, now in its fifth edition, focuses on the Yanomamo. These truly remarkable South American people are one of the few primitive sovereign tribal societies left on earth. This new edition includes events and changes that have occurred since 1992, including a recent trip by the author to the Brazilian Yanomamo in 1995.

 

Mennonite Disaster Service: Building a Therapeutic Community after the Gulf Coast Storms

Mennonite Disaster Service: Building a Therapeutic Community after the Gulf Coast Storms

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In the aftermath of a traumatic disaster, Mennonite Disaster Service arrives to help. Established in 1950, associated volunteers have gone into devastated communities to pick up debris, muck out homes, and launch rebuilding efforts. These volunteer efforts have succeeded in building more than homes, however. Called the therapeutic community by disaster researchers, acts of volunteerism can generate healing moments. Though most studies see such therapeutic effects happening right after disasters, this ethnographic study looks at long-term recovery assistance. Such extensive commitment results in beneficial consequences for survivors and their communities. For Mennonite Disaster Service volunteers, serving others reflects deeply upon their historic roots, cultural traditions, and theological belief system. In contrast to the corrosive blaming that erupted after hurricane Katrina, and feelings of neglect by those who experienced Rita and Ike, the arrival and long-term commitment of faith-based volunteers restored hope. This volume describes and explains how Mennonite Disaster Service organized efforts for the 2005 and 2008 Gulf Coast storms, following a well-established tradition of helping their neighbors. Based on deeply-ingrained religious beliefs, volunteers went to the coast for weeks, sometimes months, and often returned year after year. The quality of the construction work, coupled with the meaningful relationships they sought to build, generated trusting partnerships with communities struggling back from disaster. Based on five years of volunteer work by Mennonite Disaster Service, this volume demonstrates best practices for those who seek to do the same.

 

Totem Poles of the Pacific Northwest Coast

Totem Poles of the Pacific Northwest Coast

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This survey of totem poles from the Tlingit settlements of Alaska to the Kwakiutl villages of Vancouver Island examines the traditions that led to their creation. It includes both the author's vivid drawings of totem poles and historical photographs of early native settlements. This book is only available through print on demand. All interior art is black and white.

 

First Steps: How Upright Walking Made Us Human

First Steps: How Upright Walking Made Us Human

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In First Steps, paleoanthropologist Jeremy DeSilva explores how unusual and extraordinary this seemingly ordinary ability is. A seven-million-year journey to the very origins of the human lineage, First Steps shows how upright walking was a gateway to many of the other attributes that make us human—from our technological abilities, our thirst for exploration, our use of language–and may have laid the foundation for our species’ traits of compassion, empathy, and altruism. Moving from developmental psychology labs to ancient fossil sites throughout Africa and Eurasia, DeSilva brings to life our adventure walking on two legs. First Steps examines how walking upright helped us rise above all over species on this planet.First Steps includes an eight-page color photo insert.