An understanding of the biological as well as the social and psychological dimensions that contribute to anti-social aggression and violence can provide correctional officers with additional tools for effectively responding to aggressive behaviors and violent attacks. The psychological social and biological domains form the cornerstone of medicine’s biopsychosocial model for understanding diseases. When applied to criminal justice, this model provides the most capacious approach to understanding crime, with each domain adding a unique perspective and making essential contributions to the understanding of criminal behavior. This model also allows for a comprehensive assessment of the inmate, which, in turn, can lead to more individualized treatment plans. Correctional officers should know that each domain provides predispositions to criminal behavior and rarely is criminal behavior the result of a single variable such as a personality trait, a childhood home environment, or a neurotransmitter dysfunction. Finally, biological factors mitigate the responsibility issue but do not remove it, an important issue for two reasons. First, the different domain variables provide predispositions only. Second, personal responsibility is the cornerstone for any inmate who will make a positive adjustment while in the correctional system and ultimately lead a productive life upon his or her return to the free world. Figure and references