Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Institution
- Keyword
-
- Criminal law (7)
- Mens rea (5)
- Mental states (5)
- Culpability (4)
- Insanity (4)
-
- Mitigation (4)
- Neuroscience (4)
- Sentencing (4)
- Competence (3)
- Compulsion (3)
- Excuse (3)
- Punishment (3)
- Responsibility (3)
- Brain Overclaim Syndrome (2)
- Brain imaging (2)
- Causation (2)
- Corrections (2)
- Criminal procedure (2)
- Determinism (2)
- Evidence (2)
- Neurosciences (2)
- Psychiatry (2)
- Psychology (2)
- & social neuroscience (1)
- Addiction (1)
- Affective (1)
- Alcoholism (1)
- Alleviating social deprivation (1)
- Alteration of behaviors (1)
- American Bar Association Criminal Justice Mental Health Standards (1)
Articles 1 - 30 of 33
Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences
Neurohype And The Law: A Cautionary Tale, Stephen J. Morse
Neurohype And The Law: A Cautionary Tale, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
This chapter suggests that for conceptual, empirical, and practical reasons, neuroscience in general and non-invasive brain imaging in particular are not likely to revolutionize the law and our conception of ourselves, but may make modest contributions to legal policy and case adjudication if the legal relevance of the science is properly understood.
Mental Disorder And Criminal Justice, Stephen J. Morse
Mental Disorder And Criminal Justice, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
This paper is a chapter that will appear in REFORMING CRIMINAL JUSTICE: A REPORT OF THE ACADEMY FOR JUSTICE BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN SCHOLARSHIP AND REFORM (Erik Luna ed., Academy for Justice 2018). The criminal law treats some people with severe mental disorders doctrinally and practically differently at virtually every stage of the criminal justice process, beginning with potential incompetence to stand trial and ending with the question of competence to be executed, and such people have special needs when they are in the system. This chapter begins by exploring the fundamental mental health information necessary to make informed judgements …
Brief Of Amici Curiae Of 11 Addiction Experts In Support Of Appellee, Gene M. Heyman, Scott O. Lilienfeld, Stephen J. Morse, Sally L. Satel
Brief Of Amici Curiae Of 11 Addiction Experts In Support Of Appellee, Gene M. Heyman, Scott O. Lilienfeld, Stephen J. Morse, Sally L. Satel
All Faculty Scholarship
This brief is a critique of the brain disease model and many supposed implications of that model. It begins with a brief history of the model and moves to a discussion of the motivations behind the characterization of addiction as a “chronic and relapsing brain disease.” We follow with an enumeration of fallacious inferences based upon the brain disease model, including the very notion that addiction becomes a “brain disease” simply because it has neurobiological correlates. Regardless of whether addiction is labeled a brain disease, the real question, we contend, is whether the behavioral manifestations of addiction are unresponsive to …
Neuroscience In Forensic Contexts: Ethical Concerns, Stephen J. Morse
Neuroscience In Forensic Contexts: Ethical Concerns, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
This is a chapter in a volume, Ethics Challenges in Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology Practice, edited by Ezra E. H. Griffith, M.D. and to be published by Columbia University Press. The chapter addresses whether the use of new neuroscience techniques, especially non-invasive functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and the data from studies employing them raise new ethical issues for forensic psychiatrists and psychologists. The implicit thesis throughout is that if the legal questions, the limits of the new techniques and the relevance of neuroscience to law are properly understood, no new ethical issues are raised. A major ethical lapse …
The Poverty Of The Neuroscience Of Poverty: Policy Payoff Or False Promise?, Amy L. Wax
The Poverty Of The Neuroscience Of Poverty: Policy Payoff Or False Promise?, Amy L. Wax
All Faculty Scholarship
A recent body of work in neuroscience examines the brains of people suffering from social and economic disadvantage. This article assesses claims that this research can help generate more effective strategies for addressing these social conditions and their effects. It concludes that the so-called neuroscience of deprivation has no unique practical payoff, and that scientists, journalists, and policy-makers should stop claiming otherwise. Because this research does not, and generally cannot, distinguish between innate versus environmental causes of brain characteristics, it cannot predict whether neurological and behavioral deficits can be addressed by reducing social deprivation. Also, knowledge of brain mechanisms yields …
Actions Speak Louder Than Images: The Use Of Neuroscientific Evidence In Criminal Cases, Stephen J. Morse
Actions Speak Louder Than Images: The Use Of Neuroscientific Evidence In Criminal Cases, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
This invited commentary for Journal of Law & the Biosciences considers four empirical studies previously published in the journal of the reception of neuroscientific evidence in criminal cases in the United States, Canada, England and Wales, and the Netherlands. There are conceded methodological problems with all, but the data are nonetheless instructive and suggestive. The thesis of the comment is that the courts are committing the same errors that have bedeviled the reception of psychiatric and psychological evidence. There is insufficient caution about the state of the science, and more importantly, there is insufficient understanding of the relevance of the …
Criminal Law And Common Sense: An Essay On The Perils And Promise Of Neuroscience, Stephen J. Morse
Criminal Law And Common Sense: An Essay On The Perils And Promise Of Neuroscience, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
This article is based on the author’s Barrock Lecture in Criminal Law presented at the Marquette University Law School. The central thesis is that the folk psychology that underpins criminal responsibility is correct and that our commonsense understanding of agency and responsibility and the legitimacy of criminal justice generally are not imperiled by contemporary discoveries in the various sciences, including neuroscience and genetics. These sciences will not revolutionize criminal law, at least not anytime soon, and at most they may make modest contributions to legal doctrine, practice, and policy. Until there are conceptual or scientific breakthroughs, this is my story …
Neuroprediction: New Technology, Old Problems, Stephen J. Morse
Neuroprediction: New Technology, Old Problems, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
Neuroprediction is the use of structural or functional brain or nervous system variables to make any type of prediction, including medical prognoses and behavioral forecasts, such as an indicator of future dangerous behavior. This commentary will focus on behavioral predictions, but the analysis applies to any context. The general thesis is that using neurovariables for prediction is a new technology, but that it raises no new ethical issues, at least for now. Only if neuroscience achieves the ability to “read” mental content will genuinely new ethical issues be raised, but that is not possible at present.
Commentary: Reflections On Remorse, Stephen J. Morse
Commentary: Reflections On Remorse, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
This commentary on Zhong et al. begins by addressing the definition of remorse. It then primarily focuses on the relation between remorse and various justifications for punishment commonly accepted in Anglo-American jurisprudence and suggests that remorse cannot be used in a principled way in sentencing. It examines whether forensic psychiatrists have special expertise in evaluating remorse and concludes that they do not. The final section is a pessimistic meditation on sentencing disparities, which is a striking finding of Zhong et al.
A Good Enough Reason: Addiction, Agency And Criminal Responsibility, Stephen J. Morse
A Good Enough Reason: Addiction, Agency And Criminal Responsibility, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
The article begins by contrasting medical and moral views of addiction and how such views influence responsibility and policy analysis. It suggests that since addiction always involves action and action can always be morally evaluated, we must independently decide whether addicts do not meet responsibility criteria rather than begging the question and deciding by the label of ‘disease’ or ‘moral weakness’. It then turns to the criteria for criminal responsibility and shows that the criteria for criminal responsibility, like the criteria for addiction, are all folk psychological. Therefore, any scientific information about addiction must be ‘translated’ into the law’s folk …
New Therapies, Old Problems, Or, A Plea For Neuromodesty, Stephen J. Morse
New Therapies, Old Problems, Or, A Plea For Neuromodesty, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
This article suggests that investigational deep brain stimulation (DBS) for mental disorders raises few new bioethical issues. Although the scientific basis of the procedure may be both complex and largely unknown, addressing informed consent in such situations is a familiar problem. After reviewing the legal and moral background for investigating DBS and the scientific difficulties DBS faces as a potential treatment for mental disorders, the article focuses on informed consent and makes two primary suggestions. The study of DBS may proceed, but "hyper-disclosure" of the complexities should be required for competent subjects or proper surrogates if the candidate is not …
Genetics And Criminal Responsibility, Stephen J. Morse
Genetics And Criminal Responsibility, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
Some believe that genetics threatens privacy and autonomy and will eviscerate the concept of human nature. Despite the astonishing research advances, however, none of these dire predictions and no radical transformation of the law have occurred.
Mental Disorder And Criminal Law, Stephen J. Morse
Mental Disorder And Criminal Law, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
Mental disorder among criminal defendants affects every stage of the criminal justice process, from investigational issues to competence to be executed. As in all other areas of mental health law, at least some people with mental disorders, are treated specially. The underlying thesis of this Article is that people with mental disorder should, as far as is practicable and consistent with justice, be treated just like everyone else. In some areas, the law is relatively sensible and just. In others, too often the opposite is true and the laws sweep too broadly. I believe, however, that special rules to deal …
Abnormal Mental State Mitigations Or Murder – The U.S. Perspective, Paul H. Robinson
Abnormal Mental State Mitigations Or Murder – The U.S. Perspective, Paul H. Robinson
All Faculty Scholarship
This paper examines the U.S. doctrines that allow an offender's abnormal mental state to reduce murder to manslaughter. First, the modern doctrine of "extreme emotional disturbance," as in Model Penal Code Section 210.3(1)(b), mitigates to manslaughter what otherwise would be murder when the killing "is committed under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance for which there is reasonable explanation or excuse." While most American jurisdictions are based upon the Mode Code, this is an area in which many states chose to retain their more narrow common law "provocation" mitigation. Second, the modern doctrine of "mental illness negating an …
Mental Disorders And The "System Of Judgmental Responsibility", Anita L. Allen
Mental Disorders And The "System Of Judgmental Responsibility", Anita L. Allen
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Happiness Research And Cost-Benefit Analysis, Matthew D. Adler, Eric Posner
Happiness Research And Cost-Benefit Analysis, Matthew D. Adler, Eric Posner
All Faculty Scholarship
A growing body of research on happiness or subjective well-being shows, among other things, that people adapt to many injuries more rapidly than is commonly thought, fail to predict the degree of adaptation and hence overestimate the impact of those injuries on their well-being, and, similarly, enjoy small or moderate rather than significant changes in well-being in response to significant changes in income. Some researchers believe that these findings pose a challenge to cost-benefit analysis, and argue that project evaluation decision-procedures based on economic premises should be replaced with procedures that directly maximize subjective well-being. This view turns out to …
Determinism And The Death Of Folk Psychology: Two Challenges To Responsibility From Neuroscience, Stephen J. Morse
Determinism And The Death Of Folk Psychology: Two Challenges To Responsibility From Neuroscience, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
The Uneasy Entente Between Legal Insanity And Mens Rea: Beyond Clark V. Arizona, Stephen J. Morse, Morris B. Hoffman
The Uneasy Entente Between Legal Insanity And Mens Rea: Beyond Clark V. Arizona, Stephen J. Morse, Morris B. Hoffman
All Faculty Scholarship
There is uneasy tension in the criminal law between the doctrines of mens rea and the defense of legal insanity. Last term, the Supreme Court addressed both these issues, but failed to clarify the relation between them. Using a wide range of interdisciplinary materials, this article discusses the broad doctrinal, theoretical, and normative issues concerning responsibility that arise in this context. We clarify the meaning of mental disorder, mens rea and legal insanity, the justification for and the relation between the latter two, and the relation among all three. Next we consider the reasoning in Clark, and for the most …
Brain Overclaim Syndrome And Criminal Responsibility: A Diagnostic Note, Stephen J. Morse
Brain Overclaim Syndrome And Criminal Responsibility: A Diagnostic Note, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
This brief diagnostic note identifies a cognitive pathology, "Brain Overclaim Syndrome [BOS]," that often afflicts those inflamed by the fascinating new discoveries in the neurosciences. It begins by suggesting how one should think about the relation of neuroscience (or any other material explanation of human behavior) to criminal responsibility, distinguishing between internal and external critiques based on neuroscience. It then describes the signs and symptoms of BOS, the essential feature of which is to make claims about the implications of neuroscience for criminal responsibility that cannot be conceptually or empirically sustained. It then applies the diagnostic lens of BOS to …
Subsidizing Addiction: Do State Health Insurance Mandates Increase Alcohol Consumption?, Jonathan Klick, Thomas Stratmann
Subsidizing Addiction: Do State Health Insurance Mandates Increase Alcohol Consumption?, Jonathan Klick, Thomas Stratmann
All Faculty Scholarship
A model of addiction in which individuals are forward looking implies that as the availability of addiction treatment options grows, individuals will consume more of an addictive good. We test this implication using cross-state variation in the adoption of mental health parity mandates that include substance abuse treatments. We examine the effects of these mandates on the consumption of alcohol and find that parity legislation leads to an increase in alcohol consumption. To account for the possible endogeneity of the adoption of mental health parity mandates, we perform an instrumental variables analysis and find that the ordinary least squares estimation …
Admitting Mental Health Evidence To Impeach The Credibility Of A Sexual Assault Complainant, Tess Wilkinson-Ryan
Admitting Mental Health Evidence To Impeach The Credibility Of A Sexual Assault Complainant, Tess Wilkinson-Ryan
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Diminished Rationality, Diminished Responsibility, Stephen J. Morse
Diminished Rationality, Diminished Responsibility, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Uncontrollable Urges And Irrational People, Stephen J. Morse
Uncontrollable Urges And Irrational People, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Rationality And Responsibility, Stephen J. Morse
Rationality And Responsibility, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Managed Care And Mental Health: Clinical Perspectives And Legal Realities, Jesse Goldner
Managed Care And Mental Health: Clinical Perspectives And Legal Realities, Jesse Goldner
All Faculty Scholarship
Managed care is beginning to dominate the delivery of mental health services. The Article reviews limitations on managed care's ability to deal adequately with mental illness. It discusses empirical and other research examining the use of primary care providers as gatekeepers and it explores utilization review mechanisms, focusing particularly on providers' responses to UR. The impact on quality, access and continuity of care on discrete populations is analyzed. The article then surveys a variety of legal issues in the regulation of managed care, particularly as they apply to the provision of mental health services. These include ERISA, parity and liability …
Neither Desert Nor Disease, Stephen J. Morse
Neither Desert Nor Disease, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Blame And Danger: An Essay On Preventive Detention, Stephen J. Morse
Blame And Danger: An Essay On Preventive Detention, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Brain And Blame, Stephen J. Morse
Treating Crazy People Less Specially, Stephen J. Morse
Treating Crazy People Less Specially, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Excusing The Crazy: The Insanity Defense Reconsidered, Stephen J. Morse
Excusing The Crazy: The Insanity Defense Reconsidered, Stephen J. Morse
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.