I do believe that neuroscience can have a role in the criminal justice system. By reading some scenarios from a website, this has brought me to my answer on why I agree that it does. Let me share a story from the reading:
"In 1981 in Scottsdale, Arizona, Steven Steinberg murdered his wife in the middle of the night, driving a kitchen knife into her body 26 times. In court, Steinberg admitted to killing his wife, but pled not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. Steinberg claimed that he was sleeping at the time of the murder, and did not remember committing the atrocity. The defense argued that the act of murder was a dissociative reaction, meaning that it was produced by alterations in consciousness that were beyond Steinberg's control. The jury agreed, and Steinberg walked away a free man.
Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism, is a phenomenon in which the body is awake and active but the mind remains asleep. The eyes are open and postural muscles are aroused, but conscious awareness is still suspended. It occurs during a portion of sleep called non-REM sleep, in which the muscles are not in the same near-paralysis state as seen during REM sleep. The dissociation between "body sleep" and "mind sleep" that occurs during sleepwalking results from the relative activation and deactivation or particular brain regions, research
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One man even sleep-drove to a gas station in the late night, where he was finally found filling up his tank. So, if Steinberg was truly sleepwalking and the murder was a dissociative reaction, is he free of all culpability? The jury believed so, but in the years following this case Arizona has revised their "temporary insanity" model to a "guilty but insane" model, in which those found guilty are sent to a mental institution for as long as a comparable prison sentence (Goldstein,
Hari, 218 Ill 2d. 275 (2006). The charges, in this case, was attempted murder of his wife, and the murder of her lover. He was sentenced to prison for 48 years for murder and an additional 25 years for the attempt. The case was appealed due to the defendant’s involuntarily intoxication. The defendant had been taking an antidepressant and mixed it with Tylenol PM. The defendant claimed to be in a confused state. It was like he was there, but not there. The defendant had a psych evaluation, thought the doctor claimed that he had many problems, he was sane. According to the Supreme Court, there was evidence that the defendant was involuntarily intoxicated to do the mixed drugs Zoloft and Tylenol, last of sleep and his previous alcohol dependency. The jury didn’t know that the defendant had to be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This case was sent back to the circuit court for a new
There’s chances that an actual criminal could be faking a psychological dysfunction so they won’t be charged as guilty. Sapolsky asserts “Is a child doing poorly at school because he is unmotivated and slow, or because there is a neurobiological based learning disability?” (Quoted in Eagleman 438). Sapolsky’s question shows that it’s uncomplicated to mistake one thing for another. If a culprit committed a crim, and claimed that his/her motivation to do the crime was neurobiological, who’s to say that he/she is wrong? Even if the culprit was telling the truth, and he/she was sent to rehabilitation, they could hurt the workers with their impulses like Alex once tried to do. Even if rehabilitation did work, who’s to watch the patients after they got out? Dr. Kleiman proposes that “drug offenders undergo twice-weekly drug testing” (Quoted in Eagleman 442). Who’s to pay for these workers that are watching the patients? Who’s to pay for the rehabilitation facilities? Instead of using tax-payer dollars on trying to fix criminals for the crimes that they’ve done, the money can be used for a better purpose. Alex has shown that the impulses can come back at any time. Murderers and pedophiles shouldn’t be let into society just in case the feel these impulses. Even if they were let back into society, no one would look at them the
In 1981 Steven Steinberg was accused of murdering his wife Elena Steinberg by stabbing her twenty-six times in Scottsdale, Arizona (Guy, 2015). At the time of the murder, Steinberg was the one who called law enforcement to report an attempted break-in at his home, even though no signs of force entry were found at the scene. During that time, the case drew a lot of publicity in the state of Arizona; not only because it was a horrifying crime, but because it was a case that involved a murder while sleepwalking. When the police linked him to the murder of his wife, Steinberg did not deny killing his wife but argued that he was not responsible for her murder because he claimed that he did not remember what happened and that he was sleepwalking at the time he committed the crime. Despite inventing the story about an attempted break-in at his home, the jury found him not guilty on the basis of being temporarily insane at the time of the murder, and walked away as a free man (Guy, 2015).
In this world, there are people who are able to shoot, bludgeon, or torture a whole family and then sleep peacefully just hours after. Serial Killers have piqued the American public’s interest for generations. In the 1970s, for example, America was enthralled by the danger and fear of Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy, famous serial killers who killed a combined number of over a hundred people. Following suit of the popularity of serial killers, they have become ingrained in our culture through art, books, news, talk-shows, and movies. A famous example of this trend is in Flannery O’Connor’s ”A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, where the antagonist, The Misfit, brutally murders a family of six. O’Connor described The Misfit as a calm, polite, analytical, morally-confused, murderer with leadership skills and “strong white teeth.” This archetype, a person who can be perfectly calm while being aggressive and lacks a sense of right or wrong, has also been an interest of study in the medical field. The medical community has come together for patients that are described as lacking a moral conscious, naming their disorder psychopathy (Robinson). In Flannery O’Connor’s ”A Good Man Is Hard to Find” The Misfit exhibits signs of psychopathy, shown from his manipulating control over Bobby Lee and Hiram, and staying calm while he directly and indirectly kills six people.
Sleepwalking most often occurs at a certain point in the sleep "architecture" (6).This is the point where the sleeper's brain waves have become larger and he or she has moved into deeper sleep. This is not REM sleep, but deep non-REM sleep. The series of complex behaviors characterizing somnambulism includes "amnesia following an episode," and "difficulty in arousing the patient during an episode" (9). The patient can also have other REM disorders or psychiatric and medical disorders which do not account for the sleepwalking. While sleepwalking, the patients' brainwaves show a mixture of types of brainwave patterns, including ones similar to those observed in waking patients, as well as those found in deep sleep. It is the "awake" patterns which match the waking behaviors like walking and talking while the patient is still asleep enough so that he or she is not aware of what it happening and is not forming memories of their actions (3).
As of 2015, the estimated number of murders in the US was 15,696 (“Latest Crime Statistics Released”). From 1993 to 2008, 73-79% of murders were committed by someone the victim knew (Harrell). Murders make the news almost every day, with multiple ones occurring every hour. When the suspect murderer is caught, they are put on trials that often take a while to process through the court system. Pleading not guilty to the felony is common, as death row is a possible and likely outcome. This leads to the case for temporary insanity, in which the person who has supposedly killed the other person(s) was not aware of their actions during the crime. However, these cases are often unsuccessful in proving the insanity of the defense. Proving insanity is difficult, since the person charged has to be unknowing of the situation and consequences of their actions. The character Mary Maloney, in contrast, in the short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, is guilty of and fully aware of her actions in her death of her husband Patrick with a frozen leg of lamb. This is made clear by the amount of thought put into her actions immediately following the homicide, the analysis of how the scene would look, and her reaction to his death.
Serial killers have been around for numerous amounts of years, and while they aren’t as popular today as they once were the history of them remain very popular. In many cases, a serial killer suffers from some sort of mental illness or insanity. This is no different for the case of Albert Fish, an American serial killer who is known as one of the most vile pedophiles and killers of all time. (Montaldo, 2014) Albert Fish committed some of the most gruesome crimes I have ever read about, but he was one of the least suspecting people you would ever imagine to commit such crimes; he appeared to be a very kind older man, but deep down he was a true monster with horrific intentions.
In 1981 Steven Steinburg was charged with stabbing his wife 26 times and killing her (Yoong). He called the police and stated it was an attempted break in but the police saw no signs of a break in. The legal team said that, he was sleep walking when he killed his wife. Steinberg claimed that he did not remember doing the crime and was asleep at the time of the incident (Yoong). The jury found him not guilty on the grounds of insanity. He was released and not held responsible for his crime (Yoong).
Many serial killers are diagnosed with a mental disorder and others are considered to kill without a psychological motive. People who tend to commit crimes of injustice in the topic of murder usually have an underlying reason whether it is psychological or not. Serial Killers are in no way justified in the case of insanity. Eddie Leonski was a murderer who tried to justify his crimes with a plea of insanity but he wasn’t found clinically insane and was hung for his crimes in 1942. Eddie is always first considered as a United States Army Soldier before he is listed as a murderer. This Soldier was a loveable guy who had a lot of friends with him along the way of his rank. None of Eddie’s friends or fellow soldiers had ever suspected
Somnambulism, or sleepwalking, belongs to a group of parasomnias. This disorder of arousal is characterized by complex motor behaviors initiated during stages 3 and 4 of non-rapid-eye-movement (NREM) sleep (slow-wave sleep) (3). Behaviors during sleepwalking episodes can vary greatly. Some episodes are limited to sitting up, fumbling and getting dressed, while others include more complex behaviors such as walking, driving a car, or preparing a meal (2). After awakening, the sleepwalker usually has no recollection of what has happened and may appear confused and disoriented. The behaviors performed while sleepwalking are said to be autonomous automatisms. These are nonrelfex actions performed without conscious volition and
You must have heard about the connection between a good night’s sleep and a healthy productive day, tons of times. Understandably so, because these two things are related to each other like two sides of the same coin, you cannot have one without the other. So the big picture question is simple, how to achieve the perfect sleep every night, so that you wake up every morning, fresh, fit, and raring to go to do everything that you are supposed to do? The answer, is simple, and it is that you need to follow a few important rules to constantly sleep like a baby every night and have a fantastic morning, resulting in an amazing day. So without further ado, let’s take a look at those tips.
Sleeping disorder is a medical disorder of the sleep models of a human being or an animal. The sleeping disorders interfere with the normal mental, physical, social, and emotional functioning of the body. The commonly ordered sleeping disorders are polysomnography and actigraphy. This paper provides a critical analysis of a 2010 article written by Jane F. Gaultney called The prevalence of sleep disorders in college students: impact on academic performance.
The number of hours of sleep each person needs depends on many factors, including age. Infants need nearly 16 hours a day, while teenagers require about 8-9 hours on average. For most adults, 7 to 8 hours a night appears to be the best amount of sleep. Women in the first three months of pregnancy often need several more hours of sleep than usual. The quantity of rest a person needs also improves if he or she has been deprived of sleep in previous days. Getting too little sleep creates a "sleep debt," which is much like being overdrawn at a bank. Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous. Sleep-deprived people who are tested by using a driving simulator or by performing a hand-eye coordination task perform as badly as or worse than those who are intoxicated. Sleep deprivation also magnifies alcohol's effects on the body, so a fatigued person who drinks will become much more impaired than someone who is well-rested.
Sleep disorders have always surrounded me through family and friends. though I never suffered with any sort of sleeping disorder, I was well aware of how unnerving it can be toothless who suffer from it. I did not know all of the different types there were, and was intrigued when reading chapter three of my psychology book. I had assumed that nigh terrors, which I used to think were the same as nightmares, were over exaggerations of a person’s scary dream. Sleepwalking also held interesting facts that I didn’t know prior. Having a best friend who occasionally sleepwalks, I was always interested in why she would seldom remember both walking and talking. I also appreciated learning about sleep apnea because my father used to struggle with it and would worry my mom about his breathing when he was asleep.
At night, you lock the house down, tuck the kids into bed, clean your home, and you might even finish some last minute work. I bet you never thought about the things that can happen at night. As we kiss our children goodnight, our favorite line is “Goodnight, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite”. You never thought about your son sleepwalking through the night or even your daughter screaming out her sleep. What about your twins, who are both, having nightmares! Let us think about one more thing, did you even know that this could happen to anyone at any age, even you. Many Americans around the world lack the knowledge of realizing how important sleep really is. The lack of sleep can cause short-term and long-term health problems.