Neuroscience, Ethics, and Criminal Punishment

In some cases in the US, offenders have been made to take anti-psychotic drugs in order to restore competence to stand trial, or even to receive punishment. If such neurointerventions can change a person's behaviour can they be used to treat and more controversially, predict and prevent crime? Once a fantasy portrayed in films such as Minority Report such questions are fast-becoming fundamental ones for policy, law and ethics. This is the first book to introduce and explain the fundamental concepts, problems and debates around neuroscience, ethics and crime. After a helpful introduction the authors examine the following topics:

• Criminal justice, harm and the problem of punishment: why punish?
• Cognitive and behavioural neuroscience: a short introduction
• Reading minds: can brain scans replace lie detector tests and predict reoffending?
• Neuroscientific assessments of competency
• Compulsory neurointerventions: can changing the brain be used to increase empathy and reduce violent urges?
• Voluntary neurointervention: is it wrong to administer neurointerventions even if the offender agrees to receive the neurointervention?
• Neuroscience, free will and moral responsibility
• Broader issues in criminal justice, including the justification of criminal punishment and the role of moral intuitions in decision-making.

Additional features, such as chapter summaries, annotated further reading and a glossary make this an excellent resource for students of philosophy and those in related disciplines such as philosophy, criminology, law and criminal justice.