The Law and Neuroscience Blog

Science Takes the Stand

Nature Editorial: Science takes the stand

Two legal rulings by the US Supreme Court last week will have significant implications for research into health-care outcomes and for how neuroscience is used in sentencing juveniles.

To read more, visit: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v487/n7405/full/487005a.html

Supreme Court Majority Cites Neuroscience Research

On Monday, June 25, 2012, Justice Kagan announced the opinion for the Court in Miller v. Alabama
and Jackson v. Hobbs, holding in a five-to-four vote, that “the Eighth Amendment forbids a sentencing scheme that mandates life in prison without possibility of parole for juvenile offenders.” 

In footnote 5 of the opinion, the Court notes:  “The evidence presented to us in these cases indicates that the science and social science supporting Roper’s and Graham’s conclusions have become even stronger. See, e.g., Brief for American Psychological Association et al. as Amici Curiae 3 (“[A]n ever-growing body of research in developmental psychology and neuroscience continues to confirm and strengthen the Court’s conclusions”); id., at 4 (“It is increasingly clear that adolescent brains are not yet fully mature in regions and systems related to higher-order executive functions such as impulse control, planning ahead, and risk avoidance”); Brief for J. Lawrence Aber et al. as Amici Curiae 12–28 (discussing post-Graham studies); id., at 26–27 (“Numerous studies post-Graham indicate that exposure to deviant peers leads to increased deviant behavior and is a consistent predictor of adolescent delinquency” (footnote omitted))”.

The Court also mentions work by MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience Members, Larry Steinberg and Elizabeth Scott (“Less Guilty by Reason of Adolescence: Developmental Immaturity, Diminished Responsibility, and the Juvenile Death Penalty, 58 Am. Psychologist 1009, 1014 (2003)”) on page 8 in a discussion of Roper. 

Link to the Supreme Court Opinion:  http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-9646g2i8.pdf
and check your regular news sources for this week’s extensive coverage of the opinion. 

Justice Breyer cites neuroscience research in videogame dissent

 
 
Hon. Stephen G. Breyer: “[c]utting-edge neuroscience has shown that ‘virtual violence in video game playing results in those neural patterns that are considered characteristic for aggressive cognition and behavior’”

 

 

The U.S. Supreme Court recently invalidated (7-2) a California law that banned the sale of violent videogames to children.  The majority, in an opinion by Justice Scalia, held in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Assoc., that videogames were subject to First Amendment “speech” protection.  In dissent, Justice Breyer noted that “[c]utting-edge neuroscience has shown that ‘virtual violence in video game playing results in those neural patterns that are considered characteristic for aggressive cognition and behavior.’” He argued the Court should defer, for this reason among others, to the elected legislature’s conclusion that the videogames in question were likely to harm children.  

Scientific Advances and the Death Penalty

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog has an interesting piece on science and the death penalty.  Here is a brief excerpt:

Will scientific advances ultimately spell doom for capital punishment?

That’s the question raised by this piece over at the Arizona Republic, which examined a recent conference at Arizona State that looked at advances in neuroscience and genetics — and how they might help explain criminal behavior.

The thought goes like this: A better understanding of criminal behavior might ultimately lead society to show more compassion for those who suffer from the genetic defects that lead them to kill, maim, or commit other criminal acts.

“There is a ton of new science coming forward in both genetics and neuroscience that describe the brain in a way that leads to a predisposition to violent behavior,” said Gary Marchant, the executive director of the Center for Law, Science & Innovations at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. In the not-to-distant future, predicts Marchant, science will kill the death penalty.

Happy reading!

Malintent Detection and the Spectre of Pre-Crime

Nature News has a recent piece on developing technologies for detecting "malintent."  Here is an excerpt:

"Planning a sojourn in the northeastern United States? You could soon be taking part in a novel security programme that can supposedly 'sense' whether you are planning to commit a crime.

Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST), a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) programme designed to spot people who are intending to commit a terrorist act, has in the past few months completed its first round of field tests at an undisclosed location in the northeast, Nature has learned.

Like a lie detector, FAST measures a variety of physiological indicators, ranging from heart rate to the steadiness of a person's gaze, to judge a subject's state of mind. But there are major differences from the polygraph. FAST relies on non-contact sensors, so it can measure indicators as someone walks through a corridor at an airport, and it does not depend on active questioning of the subject.

The tactic has drawn comparisons with the science-fiction concept of 'pre-crime', popularized by the film Minority Report, in which security services can detect someone's intention to commit a crime. Unlike the system in the film, FAST does not rely on a trio of human mutants who can see the future. But the programme has attracted copious criticism from researchers who question the science behind it."

Check out the original article for the rest of the story!

 

The Deciding Brain

Charlie Rose recently hosted a series of discussions about recent advances in the sciences of the mind. One of these shows featured LANP's own Joshua Greene.  The episide is entitled, "The Deciding Brain." 

Inside the Mind of a Psychopath

Kent Kiehl and Joshua Buckholtz have a new piece in Scientific American entitled, "Inside the Mind of a Psychopath."

Neurolaw and the Popular Press

Both Scientific American and USA Today recently had neurolaw-related pieces.  The first is an article in SA about neuroevidence that is entitled, "To Tell the Truth:  Brain Scans are not Ready for the Courtroom." The second is a piece in USA Today about a recent National Geographic show about the correlation between certain alleles of the MAOA gene and violence behavior (here is a clip from the show).

Software, Prediction, and Future Violence

ABC News recently posted a piece entitled "Software Predicts Criminal Behavior" which examines the software that has been developed by Richard Berk and colleagues for the purposes of violence risk assessment.  Legal decision makers in Washington D.C. are going to be using the software to make determinations concerning sentencing and bail. 

The Neurobiology of Evil

Big Think has posted a recent interview with Michael Stone entitled "The Neurobiology of Evil."  If you haven't checked out Big Think before, you should also watch some of their other fascinating interviews with folks like Kwame Appiah, Antonio Damasio, Joseph LeDoux, Alfred Mele, and others.