Abstract
Neuroscience is increasingly identifying associations between biology and violence that appear to offer courts evidence relevant to criminal responsibility. In addition, in a policy era of 'zero tolerance of risk', evidence of biological abnormality in some of those who are violent, or biological markers of violence, may be seized on as a possible basis for preventive detention in the interest of public safety. However, there is a mismatch between questions that the courts and society wish answered and those that neuroscience is capable of answering. This poses a risk to the proper exercise of justice and to civil liberties.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$189.00 per year
only $15.75 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Masters, B. Killing for Company (Cape, London, 1985).
Wootton, B. (assisted by Seal, V. G. & Chambers, R.) Social Science and Social Pathology (Allen and Unwin, London, 1959).
Teubner, G. Law as an Autopoietic System (Blackwell, Oxford, 1993).
R v. Turner [1975] 1 QB 834.
Eastman, N. L. G. Public health psychiatry or crime prevention? BMJ 318, 549–551 (1999).
Horn, D. G. The Criminal Body: Lombroso and the Anatomy of Deviance (Routledge, New York, 2003).
Beckwith, J. & Alper, J. S. in Molecular Genetics and the Human Personality (eds Benjamin, J., Ebstein, R. P. & Belmaker, R. H.) 315–331 (American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., Washington, DC, 2002).
Rubinow, D. R. & Schmidt, P. J. Androgens, brain, and behaviour. Am. J. Psychiatry 153, 974–984 (1996).
Ellis, L. A theory explaining biological correlates of criminality. Eur. J. Criminol. 2, 287–315 (2005).
Scarpa, A. & Raine, A. Psychophysiology of anger and violent behaviour. Psychiatr. Clin. North Am. 20, 375–394 (1997).
Blair, R. J. R. Neurocognitive models of aggression, the antisocial personality disorders, and psychopathy. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 71, 727–731 (2001).
Mobley v. State, 426 S.E.2d 150 (ga. 1993).
Mobley v. State, 250 Ga. 292, 455 S.E.2d 61 (1995).
Mobley v. Georgia, 516 U.S. 942, 116 S.Ct. 377, 133 L.Ed.2d 301 (1995).
Mobely v. Georgia, 269 Ga. 635, 502 S.E.2d 458 (1998).
Raine, A. et al. Corpus callosum abnormalities in psychopathic antisocial individuals. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 60, 1134–1142 (2003).
Raine, A., Lencz, T., Bihrle, S., Lacasse, L. & Colletti, P. Reduced prefrontal grey matter volume and reduced autonomic activity in antisocial personality disorder. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 57, 119–127 (2000).
Laakso, M. P. et al. Psychopathy and the posterior hippocampus. Behav. Brain Res. 118, 187–193 (2001).
Volkow, N. D. et al. Brain glucose metabolism in violent psychiatric patients. Psychiatry Res. 61, 243–253 (1995).
Goyer, P. F. et al. Positron-emission tomography and personality disorders. Neuropsychoparmacology 10, 21–28 (1994).
Raine, A., Buchsbaum, M. & Lacasse, L. Brain abnormalities in murderers indicated by positron emission tomography. Biol. Psychiatry 42, 495–508 (1997).
Kuruoglu, A. C. et al. Single photon emission computerised tomography in chronic alcoholism. Antisocial personality disorder may be associated with decreased frontal perfusion. Br. J. Psychiatry 169; 348–354 (1996).
Soderstrom, H. et al. Reduced frontotemporal perfusion in psychopathic personality. Psychiatry Res. 114, 81–94 (2002).
Smith, A. An fMRI investigation of frontal lobe functioning in psycopathy and schizophrenia during a go/no go task. Thesis, Univ. British Columbia, Canada (2000).
Müller, J. L. et al. Abnormalities in emotional processing within cortical and subcortical regions in criminal psychopaths: evidence from a functional magnetic resonance imaging study using pictures with emotional content. Biol. Psychiatry 54, 152–162 (2003).
Kiehl, K. A. et al. Temporal lobe abnormalities in semantic processing by criminal psychopaths as revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Psychiatry Res. 130, 27–42 (2004).
Pridmore, S., Chambers, A. & McArthur, M. Neuroimaging in psychopathy. Aust. N. Z. J. Psychiatry 39, 856–865 (2005).
Hare, R. D. The Hare Psychopathy Checklist — Revised 2nd edn (Multi-Health Systems, Toronto, 2003).
Canli, T. & Amin, Z. Neuroimaging of emotion and personality: scientific evidence and ethical considerations. Brain Cogn. 50, 414–431 (2002).
Stark, C. E. & Squire, L. R. When zero is not zero: the problem of ambiguous baseline conditions in fMRI. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 98, 12760–12766 (2001).
Bostock, J. & Adshead, G. in Encyclopaedia of the Human Genome (ed. Cooper, D. ) (Nature, London, 2003).
Rose, N. in Embracing Risk (eds Baker, T. &Simon, J.) 209–237 (Univ. Chicago Press, 2001).
Yang, Y. et al. Prefrontal white matter in pathological liars. Br. J. Psychiatry 187, 320–325 (2005).
Woolf, L. C. J. Opening address, Annual Conference, Forensic Faculty, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Brighton, February 2002.
v. Dietschmann HL [2003] UKHL 10, on appeal from: [2001] EWCA Crim 2052
Reid v. The Secretary of State for Scotland [1998] 1 All ER 481.
Peay, J. Tribunals on Trial (Clarendon, Oxford, 1989).
Draft Mental Health Bill 2004.
Report of the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Committee for the Draft Mental Health Bill, HL Paper 79-II, HC 95-II, London, The Stationary Office (2005).
Winterwerp v. The Netherlands [1979] 2 EHRR 387.
Human Rights Act 1998.
Brunner, H. G., Nelen, M., Breakefield, X. O., Ropers, H. H. and van Oost, B. A. Abnormal behaviour associated with a point mutation in the structural gene for monoamine oxidase A. Science 262, 578–580 (1993).
Rhee, S. & Waldman, I. D. Genetic and environmental influences on antisocial behaviour: a meta-analysis of twin and adoption studies. Psychol. Bull. 128, 490–529 (2002).
Caspi, A. et al. Role of genotype in the cycle of violence in maltreated children. Science 297, 851–854 (2002).
Foley, D. L. et al. Childhood adversity, monoamine oxidase A genotype, and risk for conduct disorder. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 61, 738–744 (2004).
Sluyter, F. et al. Towards an animal model for antisocial behaviour: parallels between mice and humans. Behav. Genet. 33, 563–574 (2003).
Nelson, R. J. & Chiavegatto, S. Molecular basis of aggression. Trends Neurosci. 24, 713–719 (2001).
Nelson, R. J. et al. Behavioural abnormalities in male mice lacking neuronal nitric oxide synthase. Nature 378, 383–386 (1995).
Chiavegatto, S. Brain serotonin dysfunction accounts for aggression in male mice lacking neuronal nitric oxide synthase. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 98, 1277–1281 (2001).
Bratty v. A-G For Northern Ireland [1963] AC 386; [1961] 3 All ER 523–39 956, 57).
R v. McNaughton (1843) 10 Cl and Fin 200.
Section 2 Homicide Act 1957.
R v. Lloyd [1966] 2WLR 13.
DPP v. Camplin [1978] 2 All ER 168.
R v. Morhall [1993] 4 All ER 888.
Attorney General for Jersey v. Holley (Jersey) [2005] UKPC 23 (15 June 2005).
R v. Duffy [1949] 1 All ER 932 (2005).
Luc Thiet Thuan v. R [1997] AC 131 (PC).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Eastman, N., Campbell, C. Neuroscience and legal determination of criminal responsibility. Nat Rev Neurosci 7, 311–318 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1887
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1887
This article is cited by
-
Neuropsychology and the Criminal Responsibility of Psychopaths: Reconsidering the Evidence
Erkenntnis (2018)
-
A recap on Italian neurolaw: epistemological and ethical issues
Mind & Society (2017)
-
The Monoamine Oxidase A (MAOA) Genetic Predisposition to Impulsive Violence: Is It Relevant to Criminal Trials?
Neuroethics (2013)