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Measuring the Amygdala; Otherwise Recycling Lombroso Theories One and Half Centuries Later

Sokol Preçi and Gentian Vyshka

Crime and perpetrators have been under scrutiny from forensic experts and psychiatrists since centuries. This interest is understandable, if we consider the social consequences of a criminal behavior. Cesare Lombroso concluded one and half centuries before that some facial and skull anthropometric parameters might suggest someone?s tendency for criminal behavior. Technological advances but ethical problems as well have caused the fading up of his theories. However, recent neuro-radiological research has found correlates with volumetric values of certain brain region, and the criminal behavior. Two approaches are suggested and discussed in the present paper; the first focusing on the criminal traits of the perpetrator (including anthropometric parameters) and the second, putting under scrutiny the characteristics of the crime, rather than those of the perpetrator itself.