Skip to main content

The Neurosciences and Criminology: How New Experts Have Moved into Public Policy and Debate

  • Chapter
Engineering Society

Abstract

Some people in the scientized society perform mediating roles, translating the experts’ theories into ideas and images that the general public can grasp. Together with journalists, novelists are essential go-betweens and influencers in the uneasy triangular relationship between criminologists, public opinion, and the makers of penal policy. Personal interest stories in the newspapers and fictional plots about people who do not follow the rules of society – these intrigue their readers and can make ideas and narratives from the human sciences accessible. Such entertainment does not leave its consumers unaffected, but influences their engagement with real-world issues.1

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  • N. Rafter (2000), Shots in the Mirror. Crime Films and Society (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 7–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • W. March (1954), The Bad Seed (New York: Rinehart & Co.)

    Google Scholar 

  • R. F. Wetzell (2000), Inventing the Criminal. A History of German Criminology, 1880–1945 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press)

    Google Scholar 

  • O. D. Jones and T. R. Goldsmith (2005), ‘Law and Behavioural Biology’, Columbia Law Review 105(2), pp. 405–502

    Google Scholar 

  • N. Rose (2007), The Politics of Life Itself. Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press), pp. 222f.

    Google Scholar 

  • P-O. H. Wikström and R. J. Sampson (eds) (2006), The Explanation of Crime. Context, Mechanisms and Development (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • L. Raphael (1996), ‘Die Verwissenschaftlichung des Sozialen als methodische und konzeptionelle Herausforderung für eine Sozialgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts’, Geschichte und Gesellschaft 22(2), pp. 165–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • M. Foucault (2002), Archeology of Knowledge (London: Routledge), pp. 46, 75.

    Google Scholar 

  • R. Sève (2009), ‘Ouverture’, in Centre d’analyse stratégique (ed.), Perspectives scientifiques et légales sur l’utilisation des sciences du cerveau dans le cadre des procédures judiciaires (Paris: Centre d’analyse stratégique), pp. 5–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • B. Latour (2005), Reassembling the Social. An Introduction to Actor–Network Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • S. J. Morse (2006), ‘Brain Overclaim Syndrome and Criminal Responsibility. A Diagnostic Note’, Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 3, pp. 397–412

    Google Scholar 

  • R. Dooling (1999), Brain Storm (New York: Picador), p. 234.

    Google Scholar 

  • M. Hagner (2006), Der Geist bei der Arbeit. Historische Untersuchungen zur Hirnforschung (Göttingen: Wallstein), p. 26.

    Google Scholar 

  • M. Enserink (2000), ‘The Search for the Mark of Cain’, Science, n.s. 289, 28 July, pp. 575–9

    Google Scholar 

  • J. F. Dunagan (2010), ‘Politics for the Neurocentric Age’, Journal of Future Studies 15, pp. 51–70

    Google Scholar 

  • C. Blakemore (2011), ‘The Brain Waves Project’, in Royal Society (ed.), Brain Waves Module 1: Neuroscience, Society and Policy (London: The Royal Society), pp. 1–2

    Google Scholar 

  • K. P. Lesch and U. Merschdorf (2000), ‘Impulsivity, Aggression, and Serotonin. A Molecular Psychobiological Perspective’, Behavioral Sciences and the Law 18, pp. 581–604

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D. Niehoff (1999), The Biology of Violence. How Understanding the Brain, Behavior, and Environment can Break the Vicious Circle of Aggression (New York: Free Press)

    Google Scholar 

  • K. W. Back (1971), ‘Biological Models of Social Change’, American Sociological Review 36(4), pp. 660–7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • W. Frühwald (1997), ‘Ein Ende ahnen, neuen Beginn erfahren’, Forschung & Lehre 12, p. 618.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose (2007), The Politics of Life Itself, pp. 222f.

    Google Scholar 

  • Niehoff (1999), The Biology of Violence, p. 260.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hagner (2006), Der Geist bei der Arbeit, pp. 195–214

    Google Scholar 

  • N. Rose (2003), ‘The Neurochemical Self and its Anomalies’, in R. V. Ericson and A. Doyle (eds), Risk and Morality (Toronto: University of Toronto Press), pp. 407–37

    Google Scholar 

  • M. Krakowski (2003), ‘Violence and Serotonin. Influence of Impulse Control, Affect Regulation, and Social Functioning’, The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 15, pp. 294–305.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • H. J. Markowitsch and W. Siefer (2007), Tatort Gehirn. Auf der Suche nach dem Ursprung des Verbrechens (Frankfurt am Main: Campus)

    Google Scholar 

  • M. Hagner (1996), ‘Der Geist bei der Arbeit. Überlegungen zur Visualisierung cerebraler Prozesse’, in C. Borck (ed.), Anatomien medizinischen Wissens (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer), pp. 259–86

    Google Scholar 

  • P. Becker (2009), ‘New Monsters on the Block? On the Return of Biological Explanations of Crime and Violence’, in M. S. Hering Torres (ed.), Cuerpos Anómalos (Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia), pp. 265–99

    Google Scholar 

  • W. Heitmeyer and J. Hagan (eds) (2003), International Handbook of Violence Research (Doordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers).

    Google Scholar 

  • D. A. Martell (1992), ‘Forensic Neuropsychology and the Criminal Law’, Law and Human Behavior 16(3), pp. 313–36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • M. S. Gazzaniga (2008), ‘The Law and Neuroscience’, Neuron 60(3), pp. 412–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • M. L. Perlin (2009), ‘“And I See Through Your Brain”. Access to Experts, Competency to Consent, and the Impact of Antipsychotic Medications in Neuroimaging Cases in the Criminal Trial Process’, Stanford Technology Law Review 4, par. 2 [online].

    Google Scholar 

  • E. Musumeci (2010), ‘Cesare Lombroso and Neuroscientists. A Failed Patricide’, unpublished conference paper at the workshop Was Lombroso Right? The Historical Legacy of Neuroscience, Vienna 2010, p. 8.

    Google Scholar 

  • M. S. Pardo and D. Patterson (2010), ‘Philosophical Foundations of Law and Neuroscience’, University of Illinois Law Review 4, pp. 1211–50

    Google Scholar 

  • J. Greene and J. Cohen (2004), ‘For the Law, Neuroscience Changes Nothing and Everything’, in S. Zeki and O. R. Goodenough (eds), Law and the Brain (London: Royal Society), pp. 1775–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • C. Byk (2009), ‘Les difficultés légales et éthiques liées à l’utilisation des neurosciences’, in Centre d’analyse stratégique (ed.), Perspectives scientifiques et légales sur l’utilisation des sciences du cerveau dans le cadre des procédures judiciaires (Paris: Centre d’analyse stratégique), pp. 50–6

    Google Scholar 

  • T. Kailer (2011), Vermessung des Verbrechers. Die Kriminalbiologische Untersuchung in Bayern, 1923–1945 (Bielefeld: Transcript).

    Google Scholar 

  • P. Becker (2001), ‘Objective Distance and Intimate Knowledge. The Rhetoric of Criminological Narratives’, in P. Becker and W. Clark (eds), Little Tools of Knowledge. Historical Essays on Academic and Bureaucratic Practices (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press), pp. 197–235

    Google Scholar 

  • Kailer (2011), Vermessung des Verbrechers, pp. 147–91

    Google Scholar 

  • J-C. Ameisen (2009), ‘Neuroscience et éthique’, in Centre d’analyse stratégique (ed.), Perspectives scientifiques et légales, pp. 56–63

    Google Scholar 

  • V. de Vogel (2005), Structured Risk Assessment of (Sexual) Violence in Forensic Clinical Practice. The HCR-20 and SVR-20 in Dutch Forensic Psychiatric Patients (Amsterdam: Dutch University Press), p. 141.

    Google Scholar 

  • M. J. Hassett and D. G. Stewart (1999), Probability for Risk Management (Winsted, CT: Actex).

    Google Scholar 

  • J. Arnoldi (2009), Risk. An Introduction (Cambridge: Polity Press), p. 146.

    Google Scholar 

  • S. Stoléru (2009), ‘Communication During the General Debate’, in Centre d’analyse stratégique (ed.), Perspectives scientifiques et légales, p. 64.

    Google Scholar 

  • T. Moffitt and A. Caspi (2006), ‘Evidence from Behavioral Genetics for Environmental Contributions to Antisocial Conduct’, in Wikström and Sampson (eds), The Explanation of Crime, pp. 108–52

    Google Scholar 

  • S. Tassy (2009), ‘Contribution to the Debate’, in Centre d’analyse stratégique (ed.), Perspectives scientifiques et légales, p. 29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Markowitsch and Siefer (2007), Tatort Gehirn, pp. 229–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker (2002), Verderbnis, pp. 16f.

    Google Scholar 

  • O. Oullier (2009), ‘Presentation’, in Centre d’analyse stratégique (ed.), Perspectives scientifiques et légales, pp. 7–8

    Google Scholar 

  • S. Tassy (2009), ‘La relativité du concept de comportement normal’, in Centre d’analyse stratégique (ed.), Perspectives scientifiques et légales, pp. 19–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Markowitsch and Siefer (2007), Tatort Gehirn, pp. 206f.

    Google Scholar 

  • C. Vidal (2009), ‘Contribution to the Debate’, in Centre d’analyse stratégique (ed.), Perspectives scientifiques et légales, pp. 32f.

    Google Scholar 

  • M. S. Pardo (2006), ‘Neuroscience Evidence, Legal Culture, and Criminal Procedure’, American Journal of Criminal Law 33(3), pp. 301–37

    Google Scholar 

  • Markowitsch and Siefer (2007), Tatort Gehirn, pp. 105–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • H. Chneiweiss (2009), ‘Les neurosciences, nouvelle branche de la médecine légale?’ in Centre d’analyse stratégique (ed.), Perspectives scientifiques et légales, pp. 45–50

    Google Scholar 

  • S. Herbst (2003), ‘Political Authority in a Mediated Age’, Theory and Society 32(4), pp. 481–503.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • B. Latour (1987), Science in Action. How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), p. 104.

    Google Scholar 

  • A. Miller (2001), guest article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 6 October.

    Google Scholar 

  • Article (2008), ‘Kein Ort für Jungs’, Badische Zeitung, 8 November.

    Google Scholar 

  • J-P. Changeux (1998), Neue Züricher Zeitung, 17 June.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Copyright information

© 2012 Peter Becker

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Becker, P. (2012). The Neurosciences and Criminology: How New Experts Have Moved into Public Policy and Debate. In: Brückweh, K., Schumann, D., Wetzell, R.F., Ziemann, B. (eds) Engineering Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137284501_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137284501_6

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-32680-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-28450-1

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics