Newly Discovered "Evil Patch" in the Brains of Violent Criminals Could Identify Those Born to Kill

By Christine Hsu | Update Date: Feb 06, 2013 02:18 PM EST

A German scientist claims to have discovered the region in the brain where evil rests in the minds of murderers, rapists and robbers.

Neurologist Dr. Gerhard Roth from Bremen, Germany says that the "evil patch" is located in the brain's central lobe and in looks like a dark mass on X-ray scans.

The scientist made the discovery when he was doing research for the German government on violent convicted offenders.

"We showed these people short films and measured their brain waves," Roth said, according to the Daily Mail.

"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," he said.

Roth found that the dark mass located at the front of the brain seemed to surface in all the X-ray scans of people with a history of violent crime.  He said that his research suggests that some criminals have a "genetic predisposition" to violence.

"When you look at the brain scans of hardened criminals, there are almost always severe shortcomings in the lower forehead part of the brain," he said.

"There are cases where someone becomes criminal as a result of a tumor or an injury in that area, and after an operation to remove the tumor, that person was completely normal again," Roth added.

"Or there are physiological deficits, because certain substances such as serotonin in the forebrain are not working effectively," he explained. "But this is definitely the region of the brain where evil is formed and where it lurks."

Roth notes that the evil patch lurking in the brain of violent criminals is not "automatic" and that the brain can probably compensate for violent tendencies, but he wasn't sure how it works.

"But when I will 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," Roth said. "It is easy to spot this anti-social behavior from very early on."

The neurologist said that no two criminals are alike.  He said that there are three groups of criminals: the "psychologically healthy" ones who were raised in an environment where they were taught that it's "OK to bear, steal and murder", the mentally disturbed criminals who sees the world as a threatening place and the coldblooded psychopathic criminals who cannot feel compassion.

He added that not all criminals are born monsters and that many were actually made worse by their childhood environments.

"Experts detect a mental decline in some people that begins in the kindergarten. It is the task of society to offer widespread support to the children and their parents before they become criminals," he said. 

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