{"id":26752,"date":"2025-06-27T18:37:34","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T12:52:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=26752"},"modified":"2025-06-27T18:37:37","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T12:52:37","slug":"study-finds-link-between-brain-injury-and-criminal-behavior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/study-finds-link-between-brain-injury-and-criminal-behavior\/","title":{"rendered":"Study finds link between brain injury and criminal behavior"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Researchers at the\u00a0University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus,\u00a0Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital,\u00a0and\u00a0Harvard Medical School found that damage to a specific region of the brain may contribute to criminal or violent behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigation analyzed brain scans from individuals who began committing crimes after sustaining brain injuries from strokes, tumors, or traumatic brain injuries. The study compared these 17 cases to brain scans from 706 individuals with other neurological symptoms such as memory loss or depression. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigators found that injury to the region of the right uncinate fasciculus was the most commonly affected area in the brains of those people who developed criminal behavior. The same pattern held true among individuals who committed violent crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis part of the brain, the uncinate fasciculus, is a white matter pathway that serves as a cable connecting regions that govern emotion and decision-making,\u201d said Christopher M. Filley, MD<\/a>, professor emeritus of neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine<\/a> and one of the study\u2019s co-authors. \u201cWhen that connection is disrupted on the right side, a person\u2019s ability to regulate emotions and make moral choices may be severely impaired.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile it is widely accepted that brain injury can lead to problems with memory or motor function, the role of the brain in guiding social behaviors like criminality is more controversial,\u201d said Isaiah Kletenik, MD<\/a>, assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the study. \u201cIt raises complex questions about culpability and free will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kletenik said that during his time in behavioral neurology training at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, he had the unique opportunity to evaluate patients who began committing acts of violence with the onset of brain tumors or degenerative diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese clinical cases prompted my curiosity into the brain basis of moral decision-making and led me to learn new network-based neuroimaging techniques at the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital<\/a> and Harvard Medical School,\u201d said Kletenik.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To strengthen the findings, the researchers conducted a full connectome analysis, employing a detailed map of how brain regions are interconnected. They confirmed that the right uncinate fasciculus was the neural pathway with the most consistent link to criminal behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t just any brain damage; it was damage in the location of this pathway,\u201d said Filley. \u201cOur finding suggests that this specific connection may play a unique role in regulating behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The uncinate fasciculus links brain regions involved in reward-based decision-making with those that process emotions. When that link is damaged, particularly on the right side, people may have difficulty controlling impulses, anticipating consequences, or feeling empathy, all of which can contribute to harmful or criminal actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While not everyone with this type of brain injury becomes violent, the study suggests that damage to this tract may play a role in new-onset criminal behavior after injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis work could have real-world implications for both medicine and the law,\u201d said Filley. \u201cDoctors may be able to better identify at-risk patients and offer effective early interventions. And courts might need to consider brain damage when evaluating criminal responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kletenik said that the findings raise important ethical questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShould brain injury factor into how we judge criminal behavior? Causality in science is not defined in the same way as culpability in the eyes of the law. Still, our findings provide useful data that can help inform this discussion and contributes to our growing knowledge about how social behavior is mediated by the brain.\u201d said Kletenik.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts from Vanderbilt University, the University of California, San Diego, and the Salk Institute also collaborated on the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study, titled \u201cWhite matter disconnection in acquired criminality,\u201d was published in\u00a0Molecular Psychiatry<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers at the\u00a0University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus,\u00a0Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital,\u00a0and\u00a0Harvard Medical School found that damage to a specific region of the brain may contribute to criminal or violent behavior.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/brain-and-crime-study.webp",1056,640,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/brain-and-crime-study-200x200.webp",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/brain-and-crime-study-675x409.webp",675,409,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/brain-and-crime-study-768x465.webp",750,454,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/brain-and-crime-study.webp",750,455,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/brain-and-crime-study.webp",1056,640,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/brain-and-crime-study.webp",1056,640,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/brain-and-crime-study.webp",1056,640,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/brain-and-crime-study-870x570.webp",870,570,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/brain-and-crime-study-600x640.webp",600,640,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/brain-and-crime-study-600x600.webp",600,600,true],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/brain-and-crime-study-760x490.webp",760,490,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/brain-and-crime-study-550x360.webp",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/brain-and-crime-study-95x65.webp",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/brain-and-crime-study-640x640.webp",640,640,true],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/brain-and-crime-study-96x96.webp",96,96,true],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/brain-and-crime-study-150x91.webp",150,91,true]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"Health<\/a> Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26754,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26752\/revisions\/26754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}