Friday, February 27, 2015

Neuroscience in Criminal Justice

Neuroscience is a relatively new discipline and is progressively integrating itself in the criminal justice field.  James Fallon’s book, The Psychopath Inside, highlights some of the emerging research on the pathology of psychopaths.  Fallon’s perspective explains the patterns and past research on psychopath pathology. Fallon noticed a pattern of specific neural degeneration present in a string of neuroimaging scans of serial killers.  But, not all serial killers are necessarily psychopaths and not all psychopaths are serial killers.  Fallon emphasizes this key distinction with one of the central conflicts in his book.  The fact that his brain scan matched the scans of the serial killers he was researching.  The fact that he does not indulge his psychopathic biological predisposition shows that correlation remains separate from causation.  Fallon initially attributed most of psychopath behavior to biology but rapidly began to rethink the influence of the environment on such predispositions after seeing his own scan. 
            The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently published a study on the cortical thinning in the brains of psychopaths.  Researchers sampled about twenty-five inmates from a prison to examine any similarities in brain structure.  Their research paralleled with Fallon’s findings of neural degeneration in similar areas of the brain.  These are vey novel discoveries but what does is mean for the future of diagnosing psychopathy?  A recent article published by the Washington post explored the dangers and benefits of using these advances in courtrooms.  Neural imaging of defendants could reveal valuable information explaining, and potentially excusing, behavior.  Psychopathology isn’t always brought on by environmental factors.  Bipolar and anxiety disorders, for example, can be traced to biological causes.  If psychopathy can be explained by structural deficits in the brain, does that excuse any actions perpetrated because of a disorder?  Further research should be employed to expand on Fallon’s pattern and narrow down the characteristics of psychopaths.  Neural imaging could aid in identifying highly deceptive psychopaths but could also wrongly accuse James Fallons.
            Serious disdain and frustration stems from receiving little to no appreciation for work that one funnels substantial amounts of time and effort into.  Some serial killers, like the Zodiac killer who still remains at large, divert vast amounts of time and resources into meticulously terrorizing police and citizens.  Getting caught is all part of the method; the appreciation of their work.  What’s the point of making purpose-driven art if no one will appreciate it?  Wouldn’t that drive you crazy? Not all serial killers are as premeditative as other serial, impulsive, or revenge-driven killers, but their thought process and motivations highlight a fascinating area of blossoming criminal justice research. 

Fallon, J. (2013). The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist's Personal Journey Into the Dark Side of the Brain. Penguin.  

Ly, M., Motzkin, J. C., Philippi, C. L., Kirk, G. R., Newman, J. P., Kiehl, K. A., & Koenigs, M. (2014). Cortical thinning in psychopathy.


Gromet, D., Shen, F. (2014, February 25), Neuroscience is coming to the law. Can we keep politics out of it? Article.  The Washington Post. Retrieved 25 February 2015, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/02/25/neuroscience-is-coming-to-the-law-can-we-keep-politics-out-of-it/

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