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Scary jail cell
Law and Neuroscience

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
Law and Neuroscience

Seeking Clues to Criminality in the Brain

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

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
Law and Neuroscience

Will Neuroscience and Law Collide?

Report from FENS Forum of Neuroscience

In his neuroethics lecture at the recent FENS forum, Steven Hyman described how what scientists have learned about conditions like schizophrenia and addiction suggests that they may strip a person’s agency, or “free will.” But data so far don’t yet reach the bar that law demands. 
Law and Neuroscience

Sleep Deprivation Increases Susceptibility to False Memories

Learning false information when sleepy can change a person’s memory of a photograph, researchers find.
back view of child holding stuffed bear
Law and Neuroscience

From Lab Bench to Court Bench

Using Science to Inform Decisions in Juvenile Court

Juvenile court judges are asked to determine what is in the best interest of the child in every case they hear. Until about a decade ago, court decisions were routinely made without taking into consideration the needs of toddlers and infants. The Miami Child Well-Being Court™ (MCWBC) program, a partnership of clinicians and judges, has brought science into the courtroom, making it integral to the decision-making process and working to ensure that the needs of the child are met. Complementary article to "Effects of Stress on the Developing Brain"
Law and Neuroscience

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.
Law and Neuroscience

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.

Law and Neuroscience

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.
Law and Neuroscience

Murderous Minds: Can We See the Mark of Cain?

If you could look into the brain of a murderer, would you be able to see an abnormality?
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