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expert reaction to knowledge about the biological basis of psychopathy and judges sentencing

Invoking scientific evidence about the biological contributing factors of a defendant’s mental illness makes judges slightly more lenient in their sentencing decisions, reports a new study in Science.

 

Dr Seena Fazel, Clinical Senior Lecturer in Forensic Psychiatry at Oxford University and Honorary Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist with Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Partnership Mental Health NHS Trust., said:

“The implications of this important survey are problematic for two reasons. First, there are biological bases to many disorders that criminals suffer from including drug and alcohol abuse, and the diagnostic category of antisocial personality disorder – the latter a disorder that 50% of prisoners are diagnosed with. So, if psychopathy reduces your sentence because it has a biological basis, why shouldn’t these other more common conditions also result in reduced sentences.

“Second, the reliability of constructs such as psychopathy, that are not currently in diagnostic classification systems, is not likely to be high for the purposes of medico-legal reports. If a condition or disorder is going to be used to mitigate sentence length, then it should have high levels of reliability, as found with severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia.”

‘The Double-Edged Sword: Does Biomechanism Increase or Decrease Judges’ Sentencing of Psychopaths?” by Aspinwall et al., published in Science on 16th August 2012.

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