TY - JOUR
T1 - Neuroscience-based Psychiatric Assessments of Criminal Responsibility
T2 - Beyond Self-Report?
AU - Meynen, Gerben
PY - 2020/7/1
Y1 - 2020/7/1
N2 - Many legal systems have an insanity defense, which means that although a person has committed a crime, she is not held criminally responsible for the act. A challenge with regard to these assessments is that forensic psychiatrists have to rely to a considerable extent on the defendant's self-report. Could neuroscience be a way to make these evaluations more objective? The current value of neuroimaging in insanity assessments will be examined. The author argues that neuroscience can be valuable for diagnosing neurological illnesses, rather than psychiatric disorders. Next, he discusses to what extent neurotechnological 'mind reading' techniques, if they would become available in the future, could be useful to get beyond self-report in forensic psychiatry.
AB - Many legal systems have an insanity defense, which means that although a person has committed a crime, she is not held criminally responsible for the act. A challenge with regard to these assessments is that forensic psychiatrists have to rely to a considerable extent on the defendant's self-report. Could neuroscience be a way to make these evaluations more objective? The current value of neuroimaging in insanity assessments will be examined. The author argues that neuroscience can be valuable for diagnosing neurological illnesses, rather than psychiatric disorders. Next, he discusses to what extent neurotechnological 'mind reading' techniques, if they would become available in the future, could be useful to get beyond self-report in forensic psychiatry.
KW - forensic psychiatry
KW - insanity defense
KW - neuroimaging
KW - neurological illness
KW - psychiatric disorders
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85085854052&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0963180120000195
DO - 10.1017/S0963180120000195
M3 - Article
C2 - 32484135
AN - SCOPUS:85085854052
VL - 29
SP - 446
EP - 458
JO - Cambridge Quarterly of Health Care Ethics
JF - Cambridge Quarterly of Health Care Ethics
SN - 0963-1801
IS - 3
ER -