Using neuroscience to improve the legal system by 1kiki

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Using neuroscience to improve the legal system

POSTED BY: 1KIKI
UPDATED: Saturday, June 18, 2011 14:59
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Tuesday, June 14, 2011 6:03 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Interesting to me anyway ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/

By David Eagleman 9:45AM BST 05 Apr 2011

A human brain is three pounds of the most complex material in the universe. It is the mission control centre that drives the operation of your life, gathering dispatches through small portals in the armoured bunker of the skull. This pink, alien computational material, which has the consistency of jelly and is composed of miniaturised, self-configuring parts, vastly outstrips anything we’ve dreamt of building.

Using those brains, humans have done something unique. As far as we know, we’re the only system on the planet so complex that we’ve thrown ourselves headlong into the game of deciphering our own programming language. Imagine that your desktop computer began to control its own peripheral devices, removed its own cover and pointed its webcam at its own circuitry. That’s us.

What we’ve discovered by peering into the skull ranks among the most significant intellectual developments of our species: the recognition that the innumerable facets of our behaviour, thoughts and experience are inseparably yoked to a vast chemical-electrical network called the nervous system. The machinery is utterly alien to us, and yet, somehow, it is us.

The first lesson we learn from studying our own circuitry is shocking: most of what we do and think and feel is not under our conscious control. The vast jungles of neurons operate their own programs. The conscious you – the I that flickers to life when you wake up in the morning – is the smallest bit of what’s transpiring in your brain. Although we are dependent on the functioning of the brain for our inner lives, it runs its own show. Your consciousness is like a tiny stowaway on a transatlantic steamship, taking credit for the journey without acknowledging the massive engineering underfoot.

At first blush, this viewpoint sounds absurd to many people. I know this because I ask strangers their opinion about it when I sit next to them on aeroplanes. And they usually say something like “Look, all that stuff – how I came to love my wife, why I chose my job, and all the rest – that has nothing to do with my brain. It’s just who I am.” And they’re right to think that the connection between one’s essence as a person and a sea of cells seems distant at best. Our decisions come from our minds, not from electrical bolts and chemical surges. Right?

In fact, we are dependent entirely on our biology. If you were to lose the tip of your little finger in an accident, you’d be saddened, but your conscious experience would be no different. By contrast, if you were to damage an equivalently sized piece of brain tissue, this can change your capacity to understand music, name animals, see colours, judge risk, make decisions, send signals to your muscles, use verbs or perform any of the other hidden, daily feats that we pull off seemingly without effort.

Thousands of natural experiments with brain tumours, degenerative disorders, genetic mutations, drug addictions and traumatic brain injury have taught a simple lesson: our hopes, ideas, desires and behaviours depend directly on the state of the enigmatic lump of thinking stuff. The physical and mental are so closely aligned that they appear, as far as modern science can currently tell, identical. This viewpoint changes our notions of ourselves – and it will almost certainly change the legal system as well.

The problem is that the law< http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/> rests on two assumptions that are charitable, but demonstrably false. The first is that people are “practical reasoners”, which is the law’s way of saying that they are capable of acting in alignment with their best interests, and capable of rational foresight about their actions. The second is that all brains are created equal. Everyone who is of legal age and above an IQ of 70 is assumed, in the eyes of the law, to have the same capacity for decision-making, understanding, impulse control and reasoning. But these ideas simply don’t match up with the facts of neuroscience.

Along any axis that we measure, brains are different – whether in aggression, intelligence, empathy and so on. Brains are more like fingerprints: we all have them, but they are not exactly alike. As Lord Bingham, the senior law lord, put it, these myths embedded in the legal system do not provide a “uniformly accurate guide to human behaviour”.

The legal system needs an infusion of neuroscience. It needs to turn away from an ancient notion of how people should behave to understand better how they do behave.

A natural concern is that a deeper understanding of the brain will equate to exculpation. If free will isn’t what we imagined it to be, but instead depends on your genetics, environment and neural circuits, shouldn’t everyone be let off the hook? But these concerns are misplaced. We will continue to take violators of social norms off the streets; we will still assign values right and wrong to behaviours. Instead, the change will be in the refinement of our sentencing.

Currently, our patterns of punishment are founded on the concepts of personal volition and the attendant culpability. But a shift in our understanding of individual differences suggests a move toward prison sentences tailored to the risk of recidivism rather than the desire for revenge.

Some people will say that bringing science into sentencing removes its humanity. But as it stands now, research shows that ugly people get longer sentences than beautiful people, and psychiatrists and parole boards, when tested, have no predictive power in guessing who will reoffend.

Beyond modulating sentences, a deeper understanding of the brain will allow us to move beyond treating incarceration as a one-size-fits-all solution. In most countries, prisons have become de facto mental health care systems. It is more cost-effective, and less likely to encourage criminal behaviour, to divert the mentally ill to mental health courts designed to deal with them.

Similarly, we have spent billions on the war on drugs, but a better approach would be to address demand instead of supply, by understanding the brain of the addict.

Neuroscience can offer customised, brain-based approaches to rehabilitation, in which people are helped to overcome mental illness, drug addiction or even poor impulse control. This could replace the blunt assumption that prison is always the best approach.

On a broader level, the legal system can use neuroscience to achieve a realistic understanding of incentives and deterrents, which take advantage of our inborn neural mechanisms and encourage social behaviour. As understanding of the neurobiology of behaviour develops, societies can design modern, evidence-based policy.

It is time to let go of our intuitions about how people should behave and pay attention to how they do behave – to run our legal system as rigorously as a science experiment. Careful attention to detail will allow us to clean up the streets with less cost, slow the revolving doors of the penal system and divert resources into effective programmes rather than simply build more prisons. A brain-based approach can be more cost-effective, humane and successful. If we desire our medical treatments to be biologically informed, shouldn’t we demand the same from our courtrooms?

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Tuesday, June 14, 2011 8:06 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Yeah, Kiki, that was a nice little article.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Tuesday, June 14, 2011 9:40 PM

HKCAVALIER

B. F. Skinner wrote a book on this back in 1971 called Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Me, I'm all for dealing with crime practically as something we'd like to have less of, rather than as an opportunity to slake our thirst for revenge.

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

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Wednesday, June 15, 2011 4:50 AM

BYTEMITE

Interesting, intriguing, and also potentially really freakin' scary if it got used wrong. Which it might, because I don't trust most forms of justice systems anywhere.

The scientific part of me admits that this could be very useful to tailor each case to the person, regardless of the skew that the the lawyers and judge would like to put on the cases. And it may also come up with fairer punishment or rehabilitation.

But OH MAN, imagining TPTB mucking around with the neurology of any would be criminals before they're even convicted or proven guilty, on the maybe true premise that none of us can be trusted to be rational?

YIKES.

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Wednesday, June 15, 2011 10:35 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Indeed, given the subject I highly, highly reccommend Harry Harrisons A Stainless Steel Rat is Born, and in fact throughout the entire series the whole notion of breeding/engineering/brainwashing out "criminal tendancies" creeped me the hell out - most particularly the moral dissonance between the society they live in (which Jim *hates*, make no mistake about it!) and it being "Okay" there, while when the Kekkonshiki, aka "Gray Men" do the same thing, it's "Evil", I call bullshit on that one.

Of course, it does somewhat gratify me that the process didn't work so well on Angelina, particularly when Jim happens to be leering at someone other than her, Nature always, always wins, yanno ?

Our scars, our flaws - they make us who we are, they make us HUMAN - and to engineer them out leads down the path of denial of ones own humanity, which is IMHO the shortest route to disaster there EVER was, because once again, and I cannot say it enough, the more you suppress a persons humanity, the more twisted the form in which it will finally express itself, and it WILL express itself, like a tree root under a sidewalk, NATURE ALWAYS WINS.

As far as such bloodthirsty "justice" goes, I am not fan of our rigged and corrupt system to begin with, and have always favored the notion of restorative, rather than retributive, justice - since revenge helps no one, not even the dead.

Not to mention the whole notion of pre-crime, and judging people for shit they haven't DONE yet, something I went into at great length over that concept as applied to Phoenix in those horrific X-men movies - just cause someone CAN, or MIGHT do a thing, doesn't mean they WILL do that thing, for if that was true, might as well lock us all up, right ?

Which is, of course, where roads like this always lead to, isn't it - almost as if that was the plan in the first place, ehe ?

-Frem
These days, it's no longer a question of whether you're paranoid, now the question is whether you're paranoid ENOUGH.

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Wednesday, June 15, 2011 1:45 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Byte, I see what you mean about how it could be used wrong in future. The article itself doesn't say anything about that though so that's why I didn't say anything, but yeah it could definitely be used wrongly. But hopefully good will come out of it instead of bad as long as people are aware and vigilant.

Frem. When someone has disociative identity disorder I always side with the primary/original personality.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Thursday, June 16, 2011 7:53 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Ah, but that brings up the all-too-often-unasked question of exactly which one *IS*.

I knew a girl, long time ago (and was unable to assist due to legal and other constraints) BEFORE she developed DID, and come to find out much later that the personality her therapist thought was primary was in fact one of the alters, and deliberately screwing with her, at that.

Not that it really mattered at the time, cause that one was messed up beyond any help I could offer.

It takes some real nastiness to cause DID (the inflicted version, anyways) and most of those are beyond any competence I have, save in the rare case when the primary *and* the alters are mutual in seeking help, as this provides a solid start point for fusion.

-F

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Thursday, June 16, 2011 12:45 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Yeah, but if you know which is the primary then you can side with them. Note that if the primary murders someone then I think punishment is in order, even if the fragments are nicer. If those pieces are unhappy about the arrangement then I'd have to have the "Some of us in life are doomed to certain fates" discussion with them. I know because I'm doomed to two fates, not what you might think, and I face them everyday manfully and bravely.

Yeah, DID is really quite rare and takes some serious rutted up stuff at an early age to occur in its full form.

I just think that the Phoenix didn't appear until Jean was a little older, puberty, when her powers came along, so I'd always side with what Jean wants. Now one could argue that Prof X manipulated it, but as movie watchers we can't really assume ill of him since the only information we are given is that he's the good guy. Sure you can infer but it won't get you anywhere because there's no way to find out for sure. So I just assume that he is the good guy.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Friday, June 17, 2011 2:22 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Thanks Ikiki, fascinating article and really makes you think about what it all means and the consequences for how our justice system operates and how it should operate.

It would be an interesting experiment to do CT scans on prison populations and compare them to a cross section of the functioning public. I do believe you would find significant difference in what you found, and that you would have a higher proportion of prisoners whose brain demonstrated their lack of capacity for empathy, regulating emotions, self control, and forethought.

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Friday, June 17, 2011 3:49 PM

THEHAPPYTRADER

Quite interesting. It would redefine what a prison does. If I am interpreting this article correctly, they are advocating more of a therapeutic approach to the way a lawful society deals with its offenders. I guess it comes down to a question of would we rather 'keep baddies away from us or make them productive members of society?'

Personally, I'm in favor of rehabilitation over punishment, morally and pragmatically.

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Friday, June 17, 2011 5:44 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
It would be an interesting experiment to do CT scans on prison populations and compare them to a cross section of the functioning public. I do believe you would find significant difference in what you found, and that you would have a higher proportion of prisoners whose brain demonstrated their lack of capacity for empathy, regulating emotions, self control, and forethought.

CITIVAS did exactly that, it's one of the fundamental basis concepts of their research as a whole, and of course you are correct - not only did that show that lack of capacity, but also managed to trace it damn near universally to childhood mistreatment.

Which is WHY I consider that issue so damned important.

Lemme see what I can dig up regarding that, and I'll post it appended to this.

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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Friday, June 17, 2011 6:31 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Thanks Frem, I thought there might have been. Makes a mockery of the criminal justice system. Still, we all know braying for blood is a vote winner.

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Friday, June 17, 2011 6:33 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Ayep, that it is - broken people using broken means to achive impossible objectives.
American politics, in a nutshell.

Anyhow, these seemed useful.

Understanding the Effects of Maltreatment on Brain Development
http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/issue_briefs/brain_development/effect
s.cfm
This is of course, Doc Perry, your go-to-guy for this sorta thing, and since so MUCH of his stuff is available, I shall only include this one as you can follow the rest up easy enough.

Neuropsychological deficits, learning disability, and violent behavior.
http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/ccp/52/2/323/
(study included inmates)

Suffering Souls
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/10/081110fa_fact_seabrook?c
urrentPage=all
(longish piece on Dr. Kiehls attempt to physically trace and quanitfy sociopathy via fMRI)

A Mind of Crime
http://www.miller-mccune.com/legal-affairs/a-mind-of-crime-8440/
(more recent update on Kiehls work)

Is There a "Criminal" Brain?
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro02/web3/krorer.html
(article itself mediocre, references excellent and informative)

Criminalization of individuals with severe psychiatric disorders
http://mentalillnesspolicy.org/consequences/criminalization.html
(worth including for reference)

WHO IS THE SERIOUS, VIOLENT, HABITUAL OFFENDER?
http://www.vachss.com/av_dispatches/lifestyle.html
(Vachss speech from 1981, all too prophetic now)

Remember also, part of me knowing how victim becomes predator comes from direct experience, watching at point blank range all around me when I was around ten years old, watching it HAPPEN, and during an epiphany about a year or two after that, choosing to leash the beast within and not only force it to serve my will, but rather in a grander scope, go after the environments and systems which CREATE our monsters, as well as those monsters themselves, much in the fashion of the Portia spider.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portia_%28genus%29

Make no mistake, revenge was always and ever the initial motive, but rather than the short-sighted and inevitably self-destructive manner of my peers, I chose to broaden the scale to a degree almost beyond conception, a lifetime effort to, instead of retaliating against individuals or even specific venues, wreck the social structures which leave people broken, and do it on as grand and wholesale as scale as possible.

The ONLY time I've ever seen that notion reproduced in fiction was via Gundam Wing, in the person of Milliardo Peacecraft, who did in fact get his specific, individual revenge, and being unsatisfied with that, chose much the same path, for many of the same reasons.
(From Endless Waltz)

Quote:
Noin: The Brussels Presidential Residence is shield protected! We can’t even get to it!
Milliardo: I realize that! But unless I do what I can, there's no one who is going to stand against them!
Noin: Who are you waiting for?
Milliardo: For those who hope for peace. If people allow Mariemaia to do as she wishes, they’ll end up giving birth to a second Milliardo Peacecraft!

That's the core motiviation, right there - breaking the endless chain of abuse which feeds the cycle of violence, which is likely motivation for the title, you think about it.

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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Saturday, June 18, 2011 8:35 AM

DREAMTROVE

It was on my clipboard, but it belongs here. I think it has meme potential. Reminds me of Dept of precrime. I have a simple solution to crime: get rid of law.

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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Saturday, June 18, 2011 11:45 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Fuck the law, get rid of the Government.

Mind you, certain Belgians are *STILL* laughing up their sleeves.

Having no government may not be such a bad thing
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100092281/going-without
-a-government-may-not-be-such-a-bad-thing/

Quote:
Belgium has now gone for more than a year without a government and, you know what? Life is carrying on as normal. The crops are growing, the wheels are turning in the factories, the civil servants (there are lots of these) are lingering over their coffee and speculoos biscuits. A lighter than normal legislative agenda has given the country something of a boost: growth forecasts keep being upwardly revised, and the economy is expected to expand by 2.3 per cent this year.

Point ?

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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Saturday, June 18, 2011 2:59 PM

DREAMTROVE

But that might get rid of our wonderful economic model ;)

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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