"[I]s psychopathy a brain disorder, as many scientists now claim? Or is it just a reflection of modern society's deepest fears? The Myth of the Born Criminal offers the first comprehensive critique of the concept of psychopathy from the eighteenth-century origins of the born-criminal theory to the latest neuroimaging, behavioural genetics, and statistical studies. Jarkko Jalava, Stephanie Griffiths, and Michael Maraun use their expertise in neuropsychology, psychometrics, and criminology to dispel the myth that psychopathy is a biologically-based condition. Deconstructing the emotive language with which both research scientists and reporters describe the psychopaths among us, they explain how the idea of psychopathy offers a comforting neurobiological solution to the mystery of evil"--Preliminary page.

Despite the popular perception that genetic explanations of the causes of crime are new, biological determinism is an idea that dates back to the birth of criminology. This is largely due to the efforts of Cesare Lombroso, widely regarded as the father of modern criminology. His 1876 work, Criminal Man, drew on Darwin to propose that most lawbreakers were throwbacks to a more primitive level of human evolution--identifiable by their physical traits, such as small heads, flat noses, large ears, and the like. These "born criminals" could not escape their biological destiny. The "scientific" appeal of these theories of what Lombroso called criminal anthropology had a powerful and long-lasting influence in contemporary Italy, Europe, and the Western world as a whole, and even today the stereotypes they created resonate in popular culture. Lombroso's influential ideas are explored in this book

This book offers a fresh and strictly biblical interpretation of passages which for centuries remained a mystery to the student of Bible prophecy, including "Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth." I will explore the myths and deception of Roman Catholicism and their direct connection with the idolatrous worship system of the Mother and Child of ancient Babylon. The claim that Roman Catholicism is the only true Church of Christ on Earth and the claim that man can't find salvation apart from her is the greatest deception the world has ever known. Centuries of moral crisis and sexual exploitation of children speak volumes about the true nature of the leaders of the Catholic Church. The abhorrence of marriage and the negative view of women recorded in the Canon Laws clearly reflect the Gnostic belief on sexual intercourse and the imposition of celibacy. Many people throughout the world equate "Christianity" with everything that is vile, contemptible and depraved. For centuries the Catholic Church suppressed basic human rights. The Church persecuted and brutally murdered those who held beliefs that conflicted with Church dogma. During the horror of the Inquisition tens of thousands of people were tortured, beaten, burned alive, or dismembered, all in the name of a fraudulent faith. Roman Catholicism is the false representation of truth and is the cause great many people have hated and repudiated true Christianity.

The way we see and understand crime falls into two types of story that, in essence, have been told and retold many times throughout human history - in fiction, as in fact. Criminality is either a selfish choice, an aberration; or a forced choice, the product of social factors. These two stories continue to dominate both our views of and responses to crime. And, says Tom Gash, they are completely wrong. In seeking to dispel the myths that surround and inform our views of crime, Criminal argues that our obsession with 'big arguments' about crime's causes can lead us to mistake individual cases as proof of universal rules. How, he asks, can we suspend our knee-jerk reactions, and begin to understand crime for what it is: as a risk that can be managed and reduced.

A CounterPunch Best Book of the Year A Lone Star Policy Institute Recommended Book “If you care, as I do, about disrupting the perverse politics of criminal justice, there is no better place to start than Prisoners of Politics.” —James Forman, Jr., author of Locking Up Our Own The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. The social consequences of this fact—recycling people who commit crimes through an overwhelmed system and creating a growing class of permanently criminalized citizens—are devastating. A leading criminal justice reformer who has successfully rewritten sentencing guidelines, Rachel Barkow argues that we would be safer, and have fewer people in prison, if we relied more on expertise and evidence and worried less about being “tough on crime.” A groundbreaking work that is transforming our national conversation on crime and punishment, Prisoners of Politics shows how problematic it is to base criminal justice policy on the whims of the electorate and argues for an overdue shift that could upend our prison problem and make America a more equitable society. “A critically important exploration of the political dynamics that have made us one of the most punitive societies in human history. A must-read by one of our most thoughtful scholars of crime and punishment.” —Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy “Barkow’s analysis suggests that it is not enough to slash police budgets if we want to ensure lasting reform. We also need to find ways to insulate the process from political winds.” —David Cole, New York Review of Books “A cogent and provocative argument about how to achieve true institutional reform and fix our broken system.” —Emily Bazelon, author of Charged

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,3, Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, language: English, abstract: For centuries the myth of Vampirism has fascinated and scared people at the same time. This may be ascribed to the seductive, mysterious and dangerous nature of vampires as well as the uncertainty of their actual existence. As a matter of course, people are frightened by things they cannot define scientifically or by common sense. If they do really exist though, then what are vampires precisely? Are they supernatural creatures, monstruous animals, or simply evil and twisted criminals? People have always tried to explain wrongdoings of mankind in various different ways. In the Middle Ages the common believe was that evil forces led innocent people to commit crimes. However, during the Age of Enlightenment people began to break away from religious interpretation patterns of crime and address themselves to the task of explaining criminal behaviour with empirical facts. During the centuries after the Middle Ages several theories of criminal behaviour came into being. The classical criminologists defined criminal behaviour as a free choice of people, whereas positivist biologists were convinced of the fact that people are born with a criminal predisposition and could not affect that with their free will in any way. This paper is dealing with one special example of vampirism, the lesbian vampire Carmilla, who seduces and kills innocent women with her „deadly eroticism“1. Joseph Sheridan LeFanu (1814 - 1873)2 published this chilling vampire shortstory in 18723, it was probably his most famous Gothic tale. Chapter II of this paper is going to deal with the developement of the aforementioned two main criminalistic theories (the classical and the positivist theory of crime) and their principal statements, concentrating on the Criminal Woman, the Prostitute and the Lesbian. In the next chapter the theories of the biological movement will be applied to LeFanu's shortstory about the vampire Carmilla, to determine whether she can be defined as a Born Criminal according to the Biologists of the 19th century. The term „born criminal“ was coined by Cesare Lombroso, when he discovered the features of the typical criminal man. In this paper, while examining whether Carmilla is a born criminal or not, the term will be used not only according to Lombroso's theory, but will also include some other opinions about criminal women, (criminal) features of the theory of degeneration and the reception of lesbianism in the Viktorian Age. [...]