ABSTRACT
This final chapter examines criminal violence by first differentiating it from aggression. I look at the Seville Statement on Violence to explore whether violence is learned or unlearned. Although most of us abhor violence, it is adaptive in certain circumstances, such as when social controls breakdown, as in the so-called subcultures of violence. Given that status is highly universally valued, if a male cannot attain it legitimately, he is likely to attain it through shows of bravado, that often include violence. The triple imbalance hypothesis is the leading neurobiological theory of violence. It involves imbalances in various linked systems in the brain. The chapter is wrapped up with a discussion of the separate and joint roles of testosterone, the androgen receptor gene, and serotonin in violent behavior.
