With different models of trying to deal with punishment once we understand people have wrong selections. I think those are all interesting questions, but is there free will . Well, the fact that almost everybody in the audience raised either their right or left hand contemplated it and were quickly able to act and respond. That to me says, yes, there is. Now what do we want to do about it . Now that we understand that those of us in the audience or up here that like chocolate cake may not have control over it, how do we want to account for that if at all in the criminal Justice System . To date, we havent. In the future, we may wish to. I agree with that. I think that, first of all, the fact that everybody in the audience could control themselves raising their hands gives me some comfort as i walk out the door, but one of the problems with the disconnect that i was alluding to earlier between how science deals with this question and how lawyers deal with this question is that you actua
Of incarceration and come up with different models of trying to deal with punishment once we understand people have wrong selections. I think those are all interesting questions, but is there free will . Well, the fact that almost everybody in the audience raised either their right or left hand contemplated it and were quickly able to act and respond. That to me says, yes, there is. Now what do we want to do about it . Now that we understand that those of us in the audience or up here that like chocolate cake may not have control over it, how do we want to account for that if at all in the criminal Justice System . To date, we havent. In the future, we may wish to. I agree with that. I think that, first of all, the fact that everybody in the audience could control themselves raising their hands gives me some comfort as i walk out the door, but one of the problems with the disconnect that i was alluding to earlier between how science deals with this question and how lawyers deal with th
Conduct based on what we would expect of a person who has that type of brain structure who had these types of environmental factors and then start to think about how we want to treat them. Do we want to hold those people responsible for their actions or less responsible for their actions. Are there certain people who would be better subject to medical treatment instead of incarceration. Are there certainly people who we actually think would be better off in prison than not being in prison . Those types of decisions, i think, are going to be much more useful coming out of the neuroscience in the near term. In the long term, maybe we can get to the point where we make individualized decisionmaking, but so far it hasnt actually panned out. To all of you, do you think that it would be appropriate to keep this out of the courtroom, for instance, until there is a lot more certainty, or should we be using it now and run the risk that were reaching potentially wrong conclusions . Ill jump in f
Useful either as aggravation or as mitigation. So i have been doing an empirical study over the past six years now to look at, introduction in criminal cases. Its equivocal at best. It sometimes ends up being aggravating, but so far it hasnt panned out. Why hasnt it panned out . In part because science isnt quite there yet in that were able to see some things at a group level, but being able to talk bay single individual to look at their brain and to understand the extent to which their brain differences contribute to their behavior is very challenging. There just isnt enough data for that yet. You can say things at a groupwide level, though. And so kent mentioned earlier the case out of florida in the sue presume court graham in which the court said the juvenile should be treated differently with respect to life without the possibility of parole. The same happened in simmons where the court has treated juveniles differently. It may be the case we can start to do that. We can start to
Particular case whether a person is an automoton, usually you can. The law has a bright line. It says if you engage in a wongful action, there is a defense called the insanity defense which never works as most of us know because we dont recognize it. Should we recognize it, thats an interesting question. Should we have a more robust concept of diminished responsibility in light of the understanding that some people have less control over their preferences and desires or should we have better sentencing schemes or get rid of incarceration and come up with different models of trying to deal with punishment once we understand people have wrong selections. I think those are all interesting questions, but is there free will . Well, the fact that almost everybody in the audience raised either their right or left hand contemplated it and were quickly able to act and respond. That to me says, yes, there is. Now what do we want to do about it . Now that we understand that those of us in the aud