{"id":33934,"date":"2013-05-05T19:38:35","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T01:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?p=33934"},"modified":"2013-05-06T09:26:02","modified_gmt":"2013-05-06T15:26:02","slug":"can-a-psychopaths-brain-teach-us-anything-about-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/05\/can-a-psychopaths-brain-teach-us-anything-about-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Can A Psychopath’s Brain Teach Us Anything About Justice?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say you read about a man who had broken into an apartment and, upon being surprised by a young woman living there, proceeded to rape her and then stab her to death. What should happen to him? I doubt anyone would say that he doesn\u2019t deserve the full extent of the law \u2014 if not the death penalty, then at least a life sentence in the harshest, most secure prison available to prevent him from ever hurting another soul.<\/p>\n

But what if you found out that this same man had grown up in a terrible ghetto? That he had been exposed to toxic chemicals as a child? That he had been abused so much as a child that he had brain damage? That he had been abandoned by his parents? That he, himself, had been raped as a young boy? Would that change your opinion of how he should be punished for his terrible crimes?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the conundrum raised by the field of\u00a0neurocriminology, which uses brain imaging to study the brains of violent criminals with the hopes of better understanding why they\u2019re prone to destructive behavior. One of the leaders in this field is\u00a0Adrian Raine,\u00a0a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and his research has convinced him that irregularities in a person\u2019s brain, and other factors outside of his or her control, can lead the person to become violent criminals. (The example at the beginning of this article is that of\u00a0Donta Page, who raped and killed Peyton Tuthill\u00a0in 1999. Raine testified on the defense\u2019s behalf, and Page was subsequently spared the death penalty.)<\/p>\n

However, this raises thorny questions about justice. If someone is driven to become a psychopath\u00a0by factors completely outside of their control \u2014 biological,\u00a0sociological,\u00a0etc. \u2014 to what extent can they be held accountable for their actions if they are, in some fundamental way, incapable of acting any differently? And how do we answer this question without downplaying or dismissing, in any way, the very real damage that they\u2019ve caused, and the very real threat they pose to society at large \u2014 not to mention larger issues like that of free will?<\/p>\n

Dr.\u00a0Raine recently appeared on NPR\u2019s \u201cFresh Air\u201d<\/a>\u00a0(transcript<\/a>) for a fascinating interview with Terry Gross in which he explains his methodology and findings, the personality and charm(!) of psychopaths,\u00a0and the deep conflict that he feels with this subject, even after all of his research, which he lays out here:<\/p>\n

The key question is this: Simply put, if bad brains do cause bad behavior, if brain dysfunction raises the odds that somebody will become a criminal offender, a violent offender, and if the causes of the brain dysfunction come relatively early in life \u2014 and that\u2019s what I argue for; there\u2019s a whole host of factors we can go into here \u2014 but if that\u2019s true, then should we fully hold that adult individual responsible when the root causes of its behavior came early in life, well beyond its control?<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019ve got to be careful here. There\u2019s no destiny here. Biology is not destiny, and it\u2019s more than biology, and there\u2019s lots of factors that we\u2019re talking about here. And one factor, like prefrontal dysfunction or low heart rate, doesn\u2019t make you a criminal offender. But what if all the boxes were checked? You know, what if you had birth complications and you were exposed to toxins and you had a low resting heart rate, and you had the gene that raises the odds of violence, et cetera, et cetera, stuff happening early on in life, and you\u2019re not responsible for that?<\/p>\n

Then how in the name of justice can we really hold that individual as responsible as we do do, and punish them as much as we do, including death? That\u2019s the question that neurocriminology, this emerging body of evidence, is posing for the judicial system who are increasingly becoming interested in the interface between neuroscience and the law.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Adding an additional layer to Raine\u2019s own personal conflict is that he, too, has been the victim of violent crime (his throat was slit during a failed burglary attempt). When Gross asks him about this, and how being a victim colors his views on punishing violent criminals, his response is fascinating:<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a Jekyll and Hyde. So there\u2019s a Dr. Jekyll inside of me that\u2019s done the research, seen these risk factors, done longitudinal studies, documented these early risk factors beyond the individual\u2019s control that moves them into a criminal way of life, and that Dr. Jekyll is saying, you know, you can\u2019t ignore this. You can\u2019t turn a blind eye to the biology of violence and the social factors too. But there\u2019s a Mr. Hyde inside of me ranting and raving and saying, look, I don\u2019t want sob stories. I don\u2019t want excuses. There\u2019s a cause for all behavior. We can always find a cause for behavior. It comes from the brain: So what? What about the victim? What about how they feel? And what about that sense of retribution? You know, what about deterrence? I mean, I go backwards and forwards on this and, you know, I bet I\u2019ll change my mind again at some point in time.<\/p>\n

[\u2026]<\/p>\n

The scientist inside of me says, you know, that deterrence aspect \u2014 especially to capital punishment, you know, that\u2019s not working, and I don\u2019t think the science really shows it too, but how can I say it? I mean there\u2019s a part of me that says, you know, it\u2019s an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and a pound of flesh, that you know, there has to be accountability here. My throat was slit, his throat should be slit. That\u2019s just how you feel as a victim. Again, I\u2019m not proud of this. I\u2019m not proud to say that. But it\u2019s the truth. You know, kids need to be socialized and punished for bad behavior, and doesn\u2019t that also apply for us adults, you know? If you buy in to the arguments that Dr. Jekyll inside of me says, then all bets are off. Nobody\u2019s responsible. You can\u2019t have that. That\u2019s what Mr. Hyde says. That\u2019s what he says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The conundrum raised by Raine\u2019s research is one of the reasons why I find the death penalty deeply problematic. Yes, there may be those black-and-white cases where it\u2019s very clear that the perpetrator was acting with full agency, with full awareness of their actions. However, how many cases exist where someone couldn\u2019t, at a fundamental level, do otherwise? Where those factors outside of their control \u2014 a bad upbringing, childhood trauma, imbalances in their brain chemistry \u2014 conspired together, such that it was only a matter of time? Is it really justice to take the life of such a person, even in light of how abominable their actions were?<\/p>\n

But, as Raine emphatically points out, we can\u2019t ignore the victims and minimize the very real pain and trauma that they and their loved ones experience as a result of the actions of these disturbed individuals.\u00a0Justice certainly demands that they experience restitution and closure, that their lives are put right as much as is possible. Nor can we allow concepts like personal responsibility and accountability to be undermined, to the detriment of society as a whole.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, how do we balance our need for justice with the awful reality that, but for a few changes in our own situation, we might not have turned out all that differently from that murderer sentenced to death row? Raine himself had a rough childhood, and in a moment of reflection during the interview, asks \u201cIt makes you wonder, you know, what put me on one side of the bars in those four years in top-security prison when I was interviewing someone, when maybe with a different life course and other factors in my life, it could have flipped just the other way around?\u201d That\u2019s a sobering question, and one that, as Raine\u2019s research reveals, we may need to ask ourselves more often as we seek to hand down justice.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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