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Behaving badly
In partnership with the Royal Society of Literature
John Banville, James Blair, Terrie Moffitt, Fay Weldon
Chair: Professor Uta Frith FRS
Are environment, or genetics, more to blame when a human being turns to a life of crime? What does it mean to be criminally insane? Is the male psyche more prone to violence than the female? And how effectively can a criminal tendency be treated with drugs? What different lights can literature and science shed on these questions?
John Banville, whose latest novel, The Sea, won the 2005 Man-Booker Prize; James Blair, based at the National Institute of Mental Health in the US, and an expert in the roots of psychopathic behaviour; Terrie Moffitt, Professor of Social Behaviour and Development at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, specialising in persistent violent offending across the lifespan; and Fay Weldon, novelist, playwright, screenwriter and columnist, explore the criminal conundrum.