Neuroscience - the science of the brain and how it works - is taking the stand and beginning to challenge society’s notions of crime and punishment.
Experts say it’s almost inevitable that neuroscience and law will become yet more intertwined. After all, while neuroscience seeks to find out how the brain functions and affects behavior, the law’s main concern is with regulating behavior. Yet many are uneasy about the use in courts of law - and in matters of life and death - of basic science that is only just creeping out of the lab.
"All sorts of types of neuroscience evidence are being used for all sorts of types of claims," says Teneille Brown, a professor of law at the University of Utah. "The question is, is this technology really ready for prime time, or is it being abused? … Neuroscience is being used by serious scientists in real labs, but the people trying to apply it in courts are not those same people … So they’re taking something that looks very objective, that looks like gold standard science, but then morphing it into a forensic use it wasn’t developed for."
