Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2-13-2017
Abstract
This is a chapter in a volume, Ethics Challenges in Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology Practice, edited by Ezra E. H. Griffith, M.D. and to be published by Columbia University Press. The chapter addresses whether the use of new neuroscience techniques, especially non-invasive functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and the data from studies employing them raise new ethical issues for forensic psychiatrists and psychologists. The implicit thesis throughout is that if the legal questions, the limits of the new techniques and the relevance of neuroscience to law are properly understood, no new ethical issues are raised. A major ethical lapse would occur if practitioners use neuroscience without the proper understanding. It concludes that little new neuroscience is directly relevant at present to forensic practice and prescribes modesty and caution before employing it as the basis for expert reports and testimony in criminal and civil law cases.
Keywords
Criminal procedure, functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI, expert witnesses, brain imaging, scanning, cognitive, affective, & social neuroscience, mental states, folk psychology, competence, insanity
Publication Title
Ethics Challenges in Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology Practice
Repository Citation
Morse, Stephen J., "Neuroscience in Forensic Contexts: Ethical Concerns" (2017). All Faculty Scholarship. 1729.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/1729
Included in
Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Criminal Procedure Commons, Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons, Evidence Commons, Forensic Science and Technology Commons, Law and Psychology Commons, Medical Jurisprudence Commons, Neurosciences Commons, Public Law and Legal Theory Commons, Science and Technology Law Commons
Publication Citation
In Ethics Challenges in Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology Practice 132-158 (Ezra E. H. Griffith ed., 2018)