Kevin W. Saunders (Michigan State University College of Law) has posted A Disconnect Between Law and Neuroscience: Modern Brain Science, Media Influences, and Juvenile Justice (Utah Law Review, Vol. 2005, pp. 695-741, 2005) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Modern brain science has discovered a second period of physcal development of the brain in the adolescent years. Paralleling the cognitive development of infancy and early childhood, the judgmental and inhibitory regions of the brain go through a process of synaptic overblooming and later paring in this later period of life. Just as environment affects cognitive development, it appears it also has an effect on judgment and inhibition. This has consequences that should influence the development of the law. First, if environment affects which synapses remain in the developed brain and later influence judgment, there is greater reason to be concerned about the media environment children face. Second, if children are unable to make adult judgments and inhibit their actions, rather than simply unwilling to do so, that should speak in favor of a juvenile justice system that recognizes that juvenle offenders may be more amendable to rehabilitation than adults.
(Hat tip: Legal Theory Blog).
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