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Neuroscience and the Law

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Scary jail cell
Neuroscience and the Law

Using Neuroscience Evidence to Argue Against Solitary Confinement

From scathing reports to court cases, advocates at a Society for Neuroscience meeting describe their efforts to end the mentally harmful practice of confining people.
fingerprinting
Neuroscience and the Law

Seeking Clues to Criminality in the Brain

Researchers find anatomical suggestions that a particular circuit is altered in some people who commit crimes.
Neuroscience and the Law

When is the Brain “Mature”?

Though most people in the US consider 18 to be the age maturity is reached, developmental neuroscientists say there isn’t a one-size-fits-all age, nor a one-size-fits-all method to measure it.

Neuroscience and the Law

Reforming Forensics

Report from Neuroscience 2016

Fingerprint analysis and eyewitness testimony can be clouded by bias to the point that they incriminate innocent people, said Thomas Albright. Neuroscience could help
Neuroscience and the Law

Truth, Lies, and False Memories: Neuroscience in the Courtroom

Report on Progress

There are many areas in which breakthroughs in neuroscience, and neuroimaging in particular, have informed and will continue to inform the courts.
Neuroscience and the Law

Sleep Deprivation Increases Susceptibility to False Memories

Learning false information when sleepy can change a person’s memory of a photograph, researchers find.
Neuroscience and the Law

The Solitary Brain

At the AAAS meeting in Chicago, panelists--and one former inmate--describe the mental effects of solitary confinement.
Neuroscience and the Law

The Impact of Modern Neuroscience on Treatment of Parolees

Ethical Considerations in Using Pharmacology to Prevent Addiction Relapse

Neuroscience is offering insights into addiction and providing scientists with pharmacological methods, such as the use of injectable naltrexone, for reducing relapse. Richard J. Bonnie, Donna T. Chen and Charles P. O’Brien consider the ethical and legal implications of different methods for administering naltrexone to convicted drug offenders.
Neuroscience and the Law

A Fish Story? Brain Maps, Lie Detection, and Personhood

Despite progress in technologies such as “brain fingerprinting” and functional magnetic resonance imaging, neuroscientific lie detection is still a long way from commercial reality. For such a capability to be more than a sophisticated form of polygraphy, we must carefully work out our scientific concepts about deception and develop a better understanding of how minds work.

Neuroscience and the Law

New Neuroscience, Old Problems

Legal Implications of Brain Science

Neuroscience discoveries that increase our understanding and control of human behavior are being closely watched by professionals in the justice system. So far, the established notions of personhood and responsibility that underlie our morals, politics, and law have absorbed the new findings. But future neuroscience discoveries could change discrete evidentiary practices and doctrines and might well raise profound challenges to civil liberties.
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