Every clinician today needs a basic understanding of what causes violent behavior. The second edition of Neurobiology of Violence synthesizes current research on the origins of violence and reveals its implications for managing aggressive patients and minimizing risk. Author Jan Volavka, currently Chief of Clinical Research at the Nathan S. Kline Institute, spent time in a Nazi prison as a child and has devoted much of his career to studying violence in humans. In Neurobiology of Violence, Second Edition, he brought together research and clinical data from many diverse disciplines in a single-authored volume with a unified voice that is clearly written and interesting to read. Neurobiology of Violence, Second Edition, will give you a firm grounding in a complex subject that will help you diagnose, manage, and predict violent behavior. In the first part of the book you'll examine the basic science of the origins of violence in humans, such as Factors in animal aggression that have parallels in human aggression, including the relationship between serotonin and aggression The genetic and environmental factors that interplay from conception to adulthood to result in violence. In the latter part, you'll develop new insights and strategies for working with violent patients in discussions of the latest clinical science, including Major mental disorders and violent behaviors, including behaviors expressed in the community and those in psychiatric hospitals Alcohol and various drugs and the tendencies of each type of abuse to predispose people to violence Current psychopharmacological approaches to managing violent behavior in patients. With more than 1000 updated references, the second edition of Neurobiology of Violence is a seminal resource for clinicians. It is an important tool for psychiatrists, neurologists, psychologists, and all other clinicians who struggle to understand and treat violent patients.

Every clinician today needs a basic understanding of what causes violent behavior. The second edition of Neurobiology of Violence synthesizes current research on the origins of violence and reveals its implications for managing aggressive patients and minimizing risk. Author Jan Volavka, currently Chief of Clinical Research at the Nathan S. Kline Institute, spent time in a Nazi prison as a child and has devoted much of his career to studying violence in humans. In Neurobiology of Violence, Second Edition, he brought together research and clinical data from many diverse disciplines in a single-authored volume with a unified voice that is clearly written and interesting to read. Neurobiology of Violence, Second Edition, will give you a firm grounding in a complex subject that will help you diagnose, manage, and predict violent behavior. In the first part of the book you'll examine the basic science of the origins of violence in humans, such as - Factors in animal aggression that have parallels in human aggression, including the relationship between serotonin and aggression - The genetic and environmental factors that interplay from conception to adulthood to result in violence.- In the latter part, you'll develop new insights and strategies for working with violent patients in discussions of the latest clinical science, including- Major mental disorders and violent behaviors, including behaviors expressed in the community and those in psychiatric hospitals - Alcohol and various drugs and the tendencies of each type of abuse to predispose people to violence- Current psychopharmacological approaches to managing violent behavior in patients. With more than 1000 updated references, the second edition of Neurobiology of Violence is a seminal resource for clinicians. It is an important tool for psychiatrists, neurologists, psychologists, and all other clinicians who struggle to understand and treat violent patients.

Neurobiology of Violence seeks to address the origins of violence rather than the consequences. It presents the mounting evidence for the psychobiological origins of violence along with the societal causes. The book defines violence, aggression, and hostility and reviews methods of measuring these behaviors and attitudes.

Exposing ethical dilemmas of neuroscientific research on violence, this book warns against a dystopian future in which behavior is narrowly defined in relation to our biological makeup. Biological explanations for violence have existed for centuries, as has criticism of this kind of deterministic science, haunted by a long history of horrific abuse. Yet, this program has endured because of, and not despite, its notorious legacy. Today's scientists are well beyond the nature versus nurture debate. Instead, they contend that scientific progress has led to a nature and nurture, biological and social, stance that allows it to avoid the pitfalls of the past. In Conviction Oliver Rollins cautions against this optimism, arguing that the way these categories are imagined belies a dangerous continuity between past and present. The late 1980s ushered in a wave of techno-scientific advancements in the genetic and brain sciences. Rollins focuses on an often-ignored strand of research, the neuroscience of violence, which he argues became a key player in the larger conversation about the biological origins of criminal, violent behavior. Using powerful technologies, neuroscientists have rationalized an idea of the violent brain—or a brain that bears the marks of predisposition toward "dangerousness." Drawing on extensive analysis of neurobiological research, interviews with neuroscientists, and participant observation, Rollins finds that this construct of the brain is ill-equipped to deal with the complexities and contradictions of the social world, much less the ethical implications of informing treatment based on such simplified definitions. Rollins warns of the potentially devastating effects of a science that promises to "predict" criminals before the crime is committed, in a world that already understands violence largely through a politic of inequality.

Aggression is a highly conserved behavioral adaptation that evolved to help org- isms compete for limited resources and thereby ensure their survival. However, in modern societies where resources such as food, shelter, etc. are not limiting, aggr- sion has become a major cultural problem worldwide presumably because of its deep seeded roots in the neuronal circuits and neurochemical pathways of the human brain. In Neurobiology of Aggression: Understanding and Preventing Violence, leading experts in the fields of the neurobiology, neurochemistry, genetics, and behavioral and cultural aspects of aggression and violence provide a comprehensive collection of review articles on one of the most important cross-disciplinary issues of our time. Rather than summarize the topics covered by each author in each chapter, I present a schematic diagram to guide the reader in thinking about different aspects of aggr- sive and violent behavior from its neurobiological roots to environmental factors that can either promote or prevent aggression to visions of some of the most horrific acts of violence of our times, and then towards the development of strategies to reduce aggressive behavior and prevent violence. It is hoped that Neurobiology of Aggression: Understanding and Preventing V- lence will foster further research aimed at understanding the environmental genetic and neurochemical roots of aggression and how such information can be used to move forward towards the goal of eliminating violence.

Provocative and timely: a pioneering neurocriminologist introduces the latest biological research into the causes of--and potential cures for--criminal behavior. With an 8-page full-color insert, and black-and-white illustrations throughout.

Where does violence come from? How can people do such things? These are often the first questions that arise when we witness violence in the in the media or in real life. This book provides comprehensive answers by combining the explanatory approaches from criminology, sociology, psychology, psychiatry, brain research, genetics, pedagogy, historical sciences, and justice into a big, exciting, and comprehensible picture - in an entertaining way with current, state-of-the art science(s). Multiple case studies are presented that show us the frightening diversity of human violence: acts of violence by individual perpetrators; violence between groups; riots and tumults by gangs and hooligans; violent ethnic and religious conflicts; extreme violence in the form of amok and terror; and up to armed conflicts, pogroms, and genocide. Last but not least, the knowledge gained from this book can help answer another big question: how can violence be contained or even prevented? From the contents: How and where does violence originate in our brain? Why has a tendency towards violence become established as part of our behavioural repertoire in the development of humankind? What influences on personality development can lead to violent characters? How often is violence the product of a pathological psyche? Do genes play a role? Which social constellations contribute? What are the causes of rampage and terror? What is known about the relationship between religion and violence?

This book provides a review and discussion of existing scientific and technical literature on the prediction of individual violent behaviour. The literature is first used to explain the technical problems and issues associated with such predictions, and then this material is drawn on to illustrate various steps that can be taken to improve reliability.

This volume assembles the leading aggression researchers both at the preclinical and clinical level. They review the current state of knowledge about neural mechanisms of aggressive behavior and point to the need for innovative methodologies to further our understanding of this greatly understudied set of behaviors.

A unique synthesis of breakthrough research, this landmark book shatters myths about the causes of aggression, maintaining that the roots of violent behavior lie in the way the brain works.