Researchers are challenging the "society-as-cause" conventional wisdom on crime by exploring biological differences between criminals and noncriminals. They believe that early intervention and treatment could reduce the likelihood of antisocial behavior.
In the movie The Bad Seed, a mother reluctantly comes to realize that her angelic-looking little girl is a cold-blooded killer. That was fiction, of course - a story that built on the notion that someone could be "born bad" - and was overly simplistic as an explanation of evil. But new research is suggesting that that notion might be closer to truth than previously believed.
Scientists have begun to ask whether there is something biologically wrong," or different, about people who become violent criminals. And they are disclosing intriguing answers. Moreover, they say, criminal behavior can be spotted at a very early age - even as young as 6 years old, the age of the girl in the movie.
Theories about the causes of violent crime go all over the intellectual map, drawing from sociology, psychology, philosophy and religion. The question bedevils law enforcement workers, prison counselors, the criminal justice system and an increasingly frightened public. Is crime rooted m poverty, poor upbringing, exposure to "the underclass" or lack of exposure to moral teachings? Is evil, pure and simple, the "bad seed" come to life?
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