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Psychopaths can commit extremely gruesome crimes without feeling pity or remorse. Brain scans show that these people respond very differently to many stimuli than do most other test subjects. The predisposition to kill would seem to be hereditary. Research in recent years, however, has shown that many people apparently have such a predisposition but never turn violent. This finding came as a huge surprise for neuroscientists. What is more, there are clear signs that readiness to commit violence tends to decrease over the course of a person’s lifetime. Many perpetrators who committed particularly ruthless crimes in their younger years develop an ability to feel regret and empathy past the age of 40. How can this be explained? Given these findings, is it at all possible to predict reliably whether a violent criminal will reoffend or not? Neurobiologists, psychiatrists and forensic psychologists are puzzling over these questions.
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