Assignment 14: Genetic or physiological evidence

There are offenders whose criminality is based on biological factors. This may or may not be known to the offender prior to a deadly incident like the examples in this assignment. Biological anomalies are not common, but in many cases, the results are catastrophic. The cases outlined for this assignment are some of the most notorious. This assignment will help you develop a better understanding of mental illness and physiology as factors when measuring criminality.

Choose a criminal offender from the list below, or one of your choosing, whose criminal behavior was connected to a biological abnormality (physical, psychological, or chemical):

Andrea Yates and the documented evidence of psychiatric issues, including postpartum depression and psychosis, prior to murdering her five children. Jeffrey Dahmer and the documented evidence of psychiatric issues prior to murdering 17 men. John Wayne Gacy and the documented evidence of psychiatric issues prior to murdering 33 young men and boys. Charles Whitman murdered 16 people, including his wife and mother. An autopsy suggested Whitman had a brain tumor pressing on his amygdala, a region of the brain crucial for emotion and behavioral control.

Create an 8- to 10-slide Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation with speaker notes in which you:

Summarize the case. Discuss the genetic or physiological evidence that supports the notion that biology played a key role in explaining the offender’s criminality. Research the behaviors that constitute psychopathy and discuss in detail the specific behaviors demonstrated by the offender that align (or not) with behaviors indicative of a psychopathic individual. Identify if the positivist perspective applies to your chosen example. Explain your answer. Identify if the punishment rendered in your chosen example best supports the classical or neoclassical perspective of crime. Explain your answer.
Include at least 2 academic references and cite your sources according to APA guidelines
Make sure each slide has at least 150 words

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You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument