Sunday Times 2
Where evil lurks
View(s):Neurologist discovers ‘dark patch’ inside the brains of killers and rapists
By Allen Hall
A German neurologist claims to have found the area of the brain where evil lurks in killers, rapists and robbers.
Bremen scientist Dr Gerhard Roth says the ‘evil patch’ lies in the brain’s central lobe and shows up as a dark mass on X-rays.
He discovered it when investigating violent convicted offenders over the years for German government studies.
‘We showed these people short films and measured their brain waves,’ he said.
Scans studied by Dr Roth indicate that the patch associated with wicked behaviour is found at the front of the brain
‘Whenever there were brutal and squalid scenes the subjects showed no emotions. In the areas of the brain where we create compassion and sorrow, nothing happened.’
The dark mass at the front of the brain, he says, appears in all scans of people with records for criminal violence.
He says his researches have led him to believe that some criminals have a ‘genetic predisposition’ to violence.
He added: ‘When you look at the brain scans of hardened criminals, there are almost always severe shortcomings in the lower forehead part of the brain.
‘There are cases where someone becomes criminal as a result of a tumour or an injury in that area, and after an operation to remove the tumour, that person was completely normal again.
‘Or there are physiological deficits, because certain substances such as serotonin in the forebrain are not working effectively.
‘But this is definitely the region of the brain where evil is formed and where it lurks.
‘But when I look at young people, and I see there are developmental disorders in the lower forehead brain, I can say that there is a felon in the making with 66 per cent probability.
Dr Roth said no two criminals are alike but he does divide theminto three groups.
The first he classifies as ‘psychologically healthy,’ people who grow up in an environment where it is ‘OK to beat, steal and murder’.
The second type is the mentally disturbed criminal who looks at his world as threatening.
‘A wrong look, one false move, he can explode and become a killer,’ he said.
The third group are pure psychopaths, a group in which tyrants such as Hitler and Stalin belong.
© Daily Mail, London
| WHAT IS A PSYCHOPATH?
Psychopathy is a personality disorder that has been variously characterised by shallow emotions (including reduced fear, a lack of empathy, and stress tolerance), coldheartedness, egocentricity, superficial charm, manipulativeness, irresponsibility, impulsivity, criminality, antisocial behavior, a lack of remorse, and a parasitic lifestyle.  In film: Hannibal ‘the cannibal’ Lecter Terrorists are sometimes called psychopaths, and comparisons can be drawn with traits such as antisocial violence, a selfish worldview that precludes welfare for others, lack of remorse or guilt, and blaming external events.
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