LONDON — Criminal behavior can’t be blamed on how someone’s brain is wired, at least not yet, says a report from British experts who examined how neuroscience is being used in some court cases.
“Having a psychotic brain is not a general defense against a criminal charge,” said Nicholas Mackintosh, emeritus professor of experimental psychology at the University of Cambridge, who led the group that produced the report. “There’s no such thing as a gene for violence.”
The report was created by the Royal Society, the world’s oldest scientific academy. The document is part of the group’s ongoing investigation of the effects of recent advances in neuroscience on various parts of society, including education and the law.
Another report early next year will look at the potential implications of neuroscience on military and security issues.
After examining the state of neuroscience and how it might apply to the legal system in the U.K., the Royal Society concluded it’s too soon for the law to be swayed by scientists’ understanding of the brain. Still, brain scans have been cited in an increasing number of cases in the U.S. The authors of the report said they could one day prove useful for matters such as parole hearings when trying to predict whether someone will commit another crime.
The scientists said that while some criminals, such as psychopaths, have different brain structures from most people, these differences aren’t enough to release them from being legally responsible for their actions.
Some experts said it was too simplistic to think brain scans could explain human actions.
“When we see a brain image, we want to assume a blob correlates to a complex behavior,” said Carl Senior, a neuroscience expert at Aston University in Birmingham and a spokesman for the British Psychological Society.
Senior was not connected with the Royal Society report.
He said many other factors such as a person’s upbringing and the circumstances of a particular crime determined whether a crime was committed — and that a brain scan wouldn’t be able to show that.
Mackintosh also suggested neuroscience might be helpful in determining things such as the age of criminal responsibility, which in England is 10. “The science says a 10-year-old brain is still immature and developing,” he said, adding that the brain generally isn’t fully developed until age 20 or later.
