title: Unformed minds: juveniles, neuroscience, and the law.
abstract: Recently, the question of adolescent culpability has been brought before the Supreme Court of the United States for reconsideration. Neuroscience, adolescent advocates claim, is teaching us that young people cannot be found fully responsible for their actions. The reason: their brains are not fully formed. Here I consider the history of the use of scientific evidence in the courtroom, a number of adolescent murder cases, and the data now emerging from neuroscience, and argue that when it comes to brains, judges, just like the rest of us, are unnecessarily impressed. Ultimately, how we determine culpability should rest on normative and ethical considerations rather than on scientific ones.
authors: Graduate Program in Science Technology and Society, Bar Ilan University, Israel. oren.harman@gmail.com
authors: Oren
authors: O
authors: Harman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001921:Brain / Q000254:growth & development*; D003416:Criminal Law / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006708:Homicide / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D009014:Morals; D009488:Neurosciences / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D035521:Supreme Court Decisions / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States
keywords: Adolescents; Brains; Culpability; Scientism