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Knight Part of Groundbreaking Law and Neuroscience Project |
October 16, 2008 -
UC Berkeley Psychology Professor Robert Knight is part of the new Law and Neuroscience Project, a MacArthur Foundation group of lawyers and neurobiologists working to incorporate neurology data into the legal system in order to inform the legal community about the current state of neuroscience research.
They hope to help lawyers, judges and juries better understand how to evaluate colorful pictures of brains when they are presented in court. The group feels that current legal attitudes towards teen criminals need revamping and hope their work will influence court decisions when children have committed crimes, specifically in the case of the death penalty or life without parole sentences.
"This is a very fundamental issue with huge social implications," says Knight, member of the UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco Graduate Group in Bioengineering and Director of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. The group wants to use what they know about the teenage brain to help society deal with young risk takers because current legal attitudes towards teen criminals need to reflect scientific advances. Neuroscience research has shown that while teenagers' bodies may be done growing by the end of high school, their brains are not. The prefrontal cortex of a 15-year-old is very different from that of a 30-year-old, both physically and in how it's used. The group is looking at the legal implications of teenagers committing crimes while their decision processing centers are clearly not developed.
Insights into how the brain works have already greatly influenced the law as it relates to children. In the 2005 case of Roper v. Simmons, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment for minors was unconstitutional, reversing the death sentence for Christopher Simmons, who killed a woman when he was 17. Groups of scientists sent in "friend of the court" briefs outlining the current state of psychology and neurology research, demonstrating, in part, that the brain does not finish developing until our early 20s.
The Law and Neuroscience Project is headquartered at UC Santa Barbara and includes scientists and legal experts from more than two dozen universities in the United States and Canada. Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is the honorary chair of the group, and Psychology Professor Michael Gazzaniga of UC Santa Barbara is the Co-Director.
Read the full story at the Berkeley News Center |
