Lecture 6: Neurocriminology – Legal implications
Lecture is about forensic assessment and its function in Dutch criminal law.
The Dutch criminal justice system
1. Interrogation suspect by police
2. Prosecutor
3. Judgement pre-trial detention
4. Court session
5. Prison sentence
Between court session & prison sentence: forensic assessment and advice of forensic expert
They give advice to the judge
Forensic expert witness: psychologist /psychiatrist
Interface mental health care / legal system
- Forensic assessment in a legal framework (coercion or enforcement)
- Suspect as a person & protection of society
The goal: protection of society by (enforced) treatment of the patient.
Forensic assessment: can be done at the Pieter Baan Center & an ambulatory setting.
Pieter Baan: 200 assessment per year, in-patient clinic, multidisciplinary team of experts
Ambulatory setting: 3500 assessments per year, 3 contacts with suspect, psychologist /
psychiatrist
The questions that need to be answered by the forensic assessment:
1. Is it a mental health disorder?
2. Is there a relation to crime? (Between the mental health disorder and the crime)
3. Is there criminal responsibility
4. Is there a risk regarding recidivism?
5. Is enforced treatment needed?
Thijs H: psychosis, murdered people during psychosis. Some think psychosis was enhanced
because of use of drugs. Therefore difficult to assess criminal responsibility
The Biopsychosocial model :
Biology:
- Physical health
- Genetic vulnerability
- Drug effects
Social:
- Peers
- Family circumstances
- Family relationships
Psychological
- Coping skills
- Social skills
- Family relationships
- Self-esteem
- Mental health
Problem with scans: seeing something in the brain doesn’t actually mean the behavior will
reflect this (throwing laptop out of the window)
, Brain development: continues into adulthood (age of 5-20 mostly). Not all brain areas
develop at the same rate.
Social-emotional system: peaks in emotional activity with adolescence
Cognitive control system: prefrontal areas develop in a linear way
Influence of friends:
Difference in risk taking in adolescents when playing with friends than while playing alone.
Reward sensitivity:
Children, doesn’t matter if the reward is small or large, they’ll do it anyway
Adults: will do less for a low reward than a high reward
Adolescents: will feel offended and will do nothing for a low reward
Age-crime curve: most crimes are committed between 14-34. Prisons in the NL, most people
are between 18-30.
People can get very aggressive during adolescence.
Very limited amount of life-course persistent aggressive / criminal behavior
Do you think maturation of cognition is related to delinquent behavior? Is it more important
for certain types of criminal behavior?
- Cognition is important but not solely.
- Impulsivity takes more cognitive control
Do you think the level of development of cognition should be taken into account when
sentencing adolescent or young adult offenders?
- People (adults) in prison have low cognitive abilities.
- They don’t move from juvenile to prison, if you are sentenced in juvenile place you
stay in there. In severe cases they can go to TBS.
- Children law:
Dutch Law:
Since 1 April 2014 limit for applying juvenile criminal law 21 years -> 23 years but only
when development is delayed. They try to develop your skills because when you’re in prison
you might not be able to develop yourself. You could diminish in prison. Brain is still in
development. If it can be proved that development is delayed they can be sentenced under
juvenile criminal law.
Problem:
- People are not there because they think something is wrong with them
Persistent aggressive behavior
3 major deficiencies in :
- Emotion regulation and empathy (Amygdala)
- Reward sensitivity (Amygdala & prefrontal cortex)
- Executive functioning (prefrontal cortex)
Empathy: when you show them clips of people that are sad or happy, normal individuals are
able to distinguish between the different facial emotions. They see the clips and their muscle
strength is measured (smiling when seeing a happy person), they don’t smile when seeing a
happy person. Difference in reaction of Corrugator & Zygomaticus
Reward sensitivity:
Lecture is about forensic assessment and its function in Dutch criminal law.
The Dutch criminal justice system
1. Interrogation suspect by police
2. Prosecutor
3. Judgement pre-trial detention
4. Court session
5. Prison sentence
Between court session & prison sentence: forensic assessment and advice of forensic expert
They give advice to the judge
Forensic expert witness: psychologist /psychiatrist
Interface mental health care / legal system
- Forensic assessment in a legal framework (coercion or enforcement)
- Suspect as a person & protection of society
The goal: protection of society by (enforced) treatment of the patient.
Forensic assessment: can be done at the Pieter Baan Center & an ambulatory setting.
Pieter Baan: 200 assessment per year, in-patient clinic, multidisciplinary team of experts
Ambulatory setting: 3500 assessments per year, 3 contacts with suspect, psychologist /
psychiatrist
The questions that need to be answered by the forensic assessment:
1. Is it a mental health disorder?
2. Is there a relation to crime? (Between the mental health disorder and the crime)
3. Is there criminal responsibility
4. Is there a risk regarding recidivism?
5. Is enforced treatment needed?
Thijs H: psychosis, murdered people during psychosis. Some think psychosis was enhanced
because of use of drugs. Therefore difficult to assess criminal responsibility
The Biopsychosocial model :
Biology:
- Physical health
- Genetic vulnerability
- Drug effects
Social:
- Peers
- Family circumstances
- Family relationships
Psychological
- Coping skills
- Social skills
- Family relationships
- Self-esteem
- Mental health
Problem with scans: seeing something in the brain doesn’t actually mean the behavior will
reflect this (throwing laptop out of the window)
, Brain development: continues into adulthood (age of 5-20 mostly). Not all brain areas
develop at the same rate.
Social-emotional system: peaks in emotional activity with adolescence
Cognitive control system: prefrontal areas develop in a linear way
Influence of friends:
Difference in risk taking in adolescents when playing with friends than while playing alone.
Reward sensitivity:
Children, doesn’t matter if the reward is small or large, they’ll do it anyway
Adults: will do less for a low reward than a high reward
Adolescents: will feel offended and will do nothing for a low reward
Age-crime curve: most crimes are committed between 14-34. Prisons in the NL, most people
are between 18-30.
People can get very aggressive during adolescence.
Very limited amount of life-course persistent aggressive / criminal behavior
Do you think maturation of cognition is related to delinquent behavior? Is it more important
for certain types of criminal behavior?
- Cognition is important but not solely.
- Impulsivity takes more cognitive control
Do you think the level of development of cognition should be taken into account when
sentencing adolescent or young adult offenders?
- People (adults) in prison have low cognitive abilities.
- They don’t move from juvenile to prison, if you are sentenced in juvenile place you
stay in there. In severe cases they can go to TBS.
- Children law:
Dutch Law:
Since 1 April 2014 limit for applying juvenile criminal law 21 years -> 23 years but only
when development is delayed. They try to develop your skills because when you’re in prison
you might not be able to develop yourself. You could diminish in prison. Brain is still in
development. If it can be proved that development is delayed they can be sentenced under
juvenile criminal law.
Problem:
- People are not there because they think something is wrong with them
Persistent aggressive behavior
3 major deficiencies in :
- Emotion regulation and empathy (Amygdala)
- Reward sensitivity (Amygdala & prefrontal cortex)
- Executive functioning (prefrontal cortex)
Empathy: when you show them clips of people that are sad or happy, normal individuals are
able to distinguish between the different facial emotions. They see the clips and their muscle
strength is measured (smiling when seeing a happy person), they don’t smile when seeing a
happy person. Difference in reaction of Corrugator & Zygomaticus
Reward sensitivity:
