engleski

Science in the Courtroom. Some Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Transferring Neuropsychological Science in the Insanity Defence

The use of scientific neuropsychological evidence in the insanity defence raises important conceptual and methodological issues concerning the significance that the sciences of the mind/brain and behaviour should have for our self- image and specific legal decisions. The insanity defence partially or completely exculpates offenders who have certain cognitive or control incapacities that are due to a mental disorder. Legal scholars and philosophers debate in which measure general advancements in the study of the brain can inform our exculpatory practice. Some of these discussions concern issues of free will and responsibility. In this case, divergent general views on the relevance of science for understanding human action and motivation might be also at stake. However, certain discussions, that are more limited in scope, consider whether specific advancements concerning the neuropsychological underpinning of criminal behaviour would exculpate specific classes of offenders. These discussions consider recent neuropsychological scientific research is some detail and do not touch explicitly upon general issues concerning the nature and general significance of science of mind and behaviour for our self-image. However, in these discussions, there are underlying assumptions guiding the interpretations of empirical research and in extrapolating its significance for legal practice. In the course, we will focus on certain guiding assumptions and expectations concerning the scientific study of mind and behaviour that have determined that several scholars and philosophers, who have considered the issue of the criminal responsibility of offenders with antisocial personality, have overlooked several central methodological and conceptual issues. These issues centre around what can be termed the “legal instance” of the practical mind-body problem. This is the problem of establishing, in practically workable ways for the law, the bridging of the psychological incapacities that the law poses as precondition for the insanity defence, and advancements in neuropsychology of antisocial behaviour. We will consider general problems concerning the interaction between the notion of agency involved and the law and the scientific explanatory and descriptive apparatus of the neuropsychology of antisocial behaviour. In addition, we will consider the requirements that neuropsychological evidence should satisfy in order to be relevant for the insanity defence.

insanity defence ; psychophaty ; neuropsychology

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