A Review on the Application of Brain Mapping in Neurocriminology and Neuroprediction of Criminal Behaviors

Research in neurocriminology has grown dramatically in recent years. Given the importance of the subject, the purpose of this paper was to investigate studies in neuroscience and brain studies about criminology and crime prediction.

This review article is the result of a review of research published in ISI, Wiley, Sciencedirect, PubMed, Scopus, etc between 2000 and 2018 about neurocriminology using brain mapping and neuropsychological disorders, as well as their role in predicting violent, antisocial, and criminal behaviors.

Some neurobiological markers are associated with the individual's aptitude and tendency to violent and criminal behaviors. Also, certain structural and functional characteristics of the brain are associated with antisocial traits of specific groups of criminals, such as murderers and child abusers. On the other hand, the recognition of neurobiological markers associated with specific antisocial behaviors can be used to increase the accuracy of a person's likelihood of committing a crime as well as to repeat a crime, thereby predicting and preventing criminal behavior.

Although, based on the results of the research reviewed in this article and also because of the very complex nature of the brain, accurate conclusions require a lot of additional researches, but it seems that neuroprediction of antisocial and criminal behaviors using brain mapping and neurobiological findings can be a tool for assisting law enforcement agencies such as C.I.D Police and the judicial systems so that the treatment of high-risk offenders, via integrating current punishing policies and measures with social-rehabilitation strategies, could be improved without threatening their individual rights. Such an approach can have significant effects on reducing crime and promoting social security.