tin locking the Violent Brain.; A Sociological Analysis of Newoselent!fie Research on Violent and Aggressive Behaviors ny Oliver Eugene Rollins DISSERTATION Submitted m sartial satis faction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Sociology in the GRADUATE DIVISION ofthe iiNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. SAN FRANCISCO Copyright 2014 by Oliver Eugene Rollins ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND DEDICATION I owe many people for helping me get through this process. I like to start by thanking my dissertation committee members, Howard Pinderhughes, Adele Clarke, Troy Duster, Janet Shim, and Osagie Obasogie. Howard Pinderhughes advice and guidance has been instrumental to my development as a sociologist, and I am so gracious for having him as a mentor. Howard’s door, and home, was always open when I needed advice, direction, or just someone to talk to about life and my future. He models what it takes to be both an intellectual and social activist, and I grew so much under his leadership. I have also learned so much about my abilities as a scholar from Janet Shim. She has always encouraged me, but has also pushed me to be a much better thinker, writer, and teacher. I owe so much of my intellectual development to her stellar mentorship and insights, and am truly fortunate to have her on my committee. Adele Clarke’s guidance helped provide a new opening for my thinking and work. Adele was generous with her time, advice and mentorship. Her encouragement and teaching helped develop a space for my work in science, technology and medicine studies (STMS) scholarship, and provided invaluable inspiration and direction for my future. Troy Duster’s work has been invaluable to my dissertation, as with any students of race and science, and it was truly an honor to work with Troy during this process. Troy’s knowledge and guidance helped provide clarity to this project in its early stages, and it helped lay the foundation for my future work on race, science and society. My gratitude also goes to Osagie Obasogie for being so open to listening and reading the early formulations of this project. Osagie’s advice helped me shape the direction of this project, and really helped me construct a deeper level of understanding on the relationships between law, bioscience and race. I would also like to thank the faculty and staff in Social and Behavioral Sciences, in particular Shari Dworkin’s thoughtful advice and support over the years has played a key role in my iii development into a professional. Also the hard and tireless work and support of SBS staff: Cynthia Mecardo-Scott, Brandee Woleslagle, and Regina Gudelunas. I would to thank the UCSF Graduate Division staff, and especially Dean Elizabeth Watkins. Dean Watkins belief in my abilities to succeed really helped foster my growth in the last two years, and helped set the stage for the next step in my career. I would also like to thank the Graduate Division Staff who help support me and provided great encouragement and praise during this process. I have to thank my cohort, friends, and other colleagues at UCSF who were so support of my work. Specifically, Jamie Chang, Jennifer Nazareno, Tania Werner, Kate Darling, Krista Sigurdson, Sonia Alam, Amina Massey, Christopher Hanssmann, Leslie Dubbin, Mary Gee, Yvette Cuca, and UCSF-alum Martine Lappe have all provided valuable edits, advice, thoughts, and friendship during this journey. I must thank my family, especially my mother Tonya Rollins who has always provided support and motivation throughout my life. Also my sister Shawana (Wana), father Oliver Rollins, Sr., brother Brian (Rell), Uncle Brian, Delila, Aunt Joyce, Anthony (Lil Anthony), Janice, Shacomme (Tweet), Adrian, Jamal Smith, Kenneth Fitzpatrick, and Jeremy Lewis.. As well my all my friends who have helped me so much through this journey: David Peterson (DP), Deonte, Liz, Floyd, Tonia, Stacy, Daniel, Danelle, Chris J., Emily, Ben M., Alex, Phaly, Randy, Cory, Pat, Kylie, Yasin, Rose, Mark, Kevin, Jeremey, Kodj, Ben S., and Nate R. Finally, I must give a very special Thank You to Jarmin Yeh, who for the last three years has been so encouraging, loving and supportive when I needed it the most. Please forgive me if I left anyone out, your iv support and friendship does not go unappreciated. I am truly thankful for all of you being in my life! My research was graciously funded by: National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), The Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) Research Program, Supplement to Promote Diversity Health Related Research (RO1-HG115848-03S1); NIH, National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity (IMSD) Fellowship (1-R25-GM56847) UCSF Graduate Division, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellowship, and University of California, Center for New Racial Studies (UCCNRS) Graduate Research Grant I dedicate this dissertation to the memory of my family members and past mentors who passed away during this journey. My grandmother, Gertrude Rollins; my professors at the University of Louisville Dr. Clarence Tally and Dr. J. Blaine Hudson, and my best friend and cousin, who passed away way too soon, Ronald K. Jenkins. v Unlocking the Violent Brain: A Sociological Analysis of Neuroscientific Research on Violent and Aggressive Behaviors Oliver E. Rollins ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the social and ethical implications of neuroscientific research on violent and aggressive behaviors (VAB). It describes how neurobiological research on the determinants of VAB are formulated, structured, and contested, and how neuroscientists understand and use race in neuroscientific VAB research. This dissertation employs a multi-sited methodology, which includes four interrelated methods: historical overview of biocriminology; qualitative content analysis of neuroimaging research on VAB (1990-2012); semi-structured, in- depth interviews with neuroscientists who research VAB, and ethnographic observation/neuroscience training. One key focus of the dissertation is to examine specific critiques of the production and use of biological research on VAB and crime, and the reactions, rebuttals, and methodological steps taken by contemporary biocriminologists in an effort to address and/or resolve such objections. To help address this focus, I start with a historical examination of biomedical VAB research, which helps historically situate the dissertation by threading together specific continuities pertaining to epistemologies, methodologies, ideological debates and material consequences that underpin biological inquiries of VAB. I then provide a description of the increasing use of innovative imaging technologies in research on violence and crime, arguing that such transformations are part of larger processes of the biomedicalization of deviant behaviors. I argue that the use of neuroscience practices and technologies better positioned biocriminology to address critiques from its past. However, it has also produced newer, more vi discursive ways to construct and use biocriminology knowledges and to make and understand violent, aggressive and criminal bodies and brains. Historically, the ‘question of race’ has always been intimately tied to research on VAB, and at times has helped reinforced both racism and sexism. Contemporary biocriminologists have acknowledged such misuses, and often expressed that such practices have been both denounced and rejected by biocriminologists today. Using interviews with neuroscientists who study VAB, this dissertation provides a greater understanding of the operation and impacts of race in neuroscience research on VAB. I address the way neuroscientists use race in the design and execution of their work, and provide an overview of the potential social impacts of biocriminological knowledge on the operation of race and violence in society. Overall, this research helps elucidate current and future impacts of researching, preventing, and potentially treating VAB through biomedical technologies, and it contributes new knowledge to the longstanding conversations on race and biomedicine, including the intertwined relationships between racialized/gendered inequalities, criminal justice, and mental health. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND DEDICATION........................................................................ iii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................. viii LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... xi LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... xii CHAPTER I LOCATING VIOLENCE IN THE BODY CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1 FRAMEWORK FOR A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF BIOCRIMINOLOGY ................ 4 What’s in a Definition ............................................................................................................. 6 Sociology of Knowledge ......................................................................................................... 9 Knowledge as a Social Product ..............................................................................................