Reviews & Recommendations; December 2008/January 2009; Scientific American Mind; by Nicole Branan, Melinda Wenner, David Dobbs, Rachel Mahan; 2 Page(s)

The Criminal Brain: Understanding Biological Theories of Crime by Nicole Rafter. New York University Press, 2008 ($24)

In the sci-fi movie Minority Report ¿Precrime¿ police unitsstop murders before they happen by relying on the visions of people who can see the future. Clairvoyants who possess precognition will likely remain fiction. But the idea of preventing individuals from committing crimes may be on the threshold of becoming reality, according to Northeastern University criminologist Nicole Rafter. Recent scientific advances, such as The decoding of the human genome and, growing out of that, studies that examine gene-environment interactions, have opened new avenues to explore the biological bases of character traits, including the propensity to commit crimes. As a result, Rafter says, criminologists are now shifting their attention toward biological reasons for delinquent behavior after decades of trying to define crime mainly on the basis of sociological factors.