Summary: Pregnancy And Accountability

Many court cases involve some type of syndrome-based defense, whether it be anything from battered women’s syndrome to Vietnam syndrome to fetal alcohol syndrome to attention deficit disorder. In these cases, the accused tries to use their disease or disorder as a reason to get a not guilty charge. A syndrome-based defense is a defense based on the acceptability of syndrome-related claims. Since syndromes are viewed as diseases or disorders, we might anticipate the development based on other disorders, perhaps Alzheimer’s, alcoholism, or drug addiction.

In the essay "What Pregnant Women Won't Tell You - Ever", Elyse Anders talks about the downsides of pregnancy. Some of which I wasn't aware that could happen but other I was. I was aware of common symptoms like having a trouble staying awake, morning sickness, frequent urination, pooping and not being able to drink. But, I was not aware of the others.

Due to its primary role in processing memory and emotional reactions, over the last decade and a half psychologists have been linking the amygdala to psychopathy. It is involved in aversive conditioning and instrumental learning and is thus involved in all the processes that, when impaired, produce the same functional impairments displayed by psychopaths. Two famous studies conducted by Tiihonen and Kiehl respectively have confirmed this. Tiihonen used a volumetric MRI to test and confirm the positive correlation between low amygdaloid volume and a high degree of psychopathy in violent criminals (measured by the Hare checklist-revised) while Kiehl used a functional MRI to prove reduced amygdala response during an emotional memory task in individuals who scored high on the Hare checklist-revised. However, both these studies along with numerous others were conducted using violent offenders as subjects rather than individuals with psychopathy. Although many psychopaths do exhibit violent tendencies, not all violent offenders are necessarily psychopaths. A study conducted by Raine is one of the few that did focus only on individuals exhibiting psychopathy. In his study Raine was able to show reduced prefrontal grey matter in his test subjects. Unfortunately though, he was unable to differentiate between grey matter in different regions of the prefrontal cortex. It is however clear that there is one region of the frontal cortex that could be

Overall, this article describes numerous cases of people’s personality and behavior being drastically affected by various forms of brain damage, particularly to the frontal lobe. This is consistent with what we have learned about Phineas Gage and his dramatically changed personality. As such, the author, David Eagleman, concludes that humans are not really “free” and that we are all products of our brains’ physical state, meaning that the notion of all humans being equal in their decisions is fundamentally flawed. He therefore proposes modifying the criminal justice system so that sentencing is customized more for the particular offender, taking into account the functionality of the criminal’s brain,

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

The ‘loss of control’ tests were formulated as a response to the criticism of the ‘irresistible impulse’ test, whose title was even characterized as misleading by Abraham Goldstein. This new tests have a wider scope, since they encompass situations were a person has lost the power to make choices irrespective of the source that led to this loss. The emerged ‘Parson’s rule’ stresses the need for a causal link between the condition suffered by the defendant and the criminal offence committed, an element that was, also, present in the ‘M’Naghten rule’. Moreover, the test’s unfortunate criterion that the mental disease must have ‘solely’ caused the subject’s act, has been interpreted as meaning ‘primarily’ to ensure the intended scope of the

The criminal justice system is a system of law enforcement that is involved in prosecuting, sentencing, and punishing those who have committed a criminal offence. When every member of society is aware of their individual rights and the laws enforced, the criminal justice system is very effective, but when a contributor to society is mentally insane and commits a criminal offence everything changes. In Frontline’s A Crime of Insanity, a twenty-six year old psychology student, Ralph Tortoricci, walked across the Albany campus of the State University of New York with a hunting knife and a Remington .270 rifle. He took a class hostage and later wounded a nineteen year old sophomore. Ralph obviously committed a crime but the problem is: was he

As a woman, the experience of pregnancy and preparing to bring a new life into this world is, in general, an incredibly exciting time, unless of course, you are one of thousands of women incarcerated in the United States, serving prison time for felony convictions.

Traumatic brain injury is any damage caused to the brain. Individuals with TBI may show aphasia-like symptoms, yet the characteristics of TBI include mostly cognitive processes deficits. Those characteristics include disrupt orientation, attention, memory, visual processing, and executive functions problems. Penitents with TBI experience a blackout that can last anywhere between a few minutes up to months and usually wake up confused and disoriented. They do not have any recollection of the events that occurred. In addition to the common characteristics mentioned earlier, TBI patients exhibit communication deficits that relate to poor cognitive functioning such as problems with word finding, grammatical, spelling, reading, and writing. The cause of TBI is very straightforward, unlike SLI or ASD. Any injury to the head, for example motor vehicle accidents, falls, blast trauma, and more, can cause a TBI. These in turn can cause damage to multiple areas of the brain and impair motor, speech, language, and cognitive functions as discussed. It is important to note that unlike ASD that usually

Two other types of tests were created regarding insanity in 1984--the Federal Insanity Defense Reform Act and Rogers Criminal Responsibility Assessment Scales. The Federal Insanity Defense Reform Act placed the burden of proof on the defendant, and not the prosecution (Morse, 2008). The Rogers Criminal Responsibility Assessment Scales were also developed in 1984 to evaluate criminal responsibility with regard to sanity. It uses the concepts of cognitive and volitional components and is structured to

Unfortunately, TBI and inmates is not a well-established area of study. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2007), mild TBI is found within 25% to 87% of inmates. One such that looked at prevalence was done by Diamond, Harzke, Magaletta, Cummins, and Frankowski (2007) where the researchers looked at Minnesota male state prisoners and assessed them using the Traumatic Brain Injury Questionnaire. What the authors found

In my opinion, the insanity defense should be in place for those individuals who are in fact mental incapable of fully understanding their actions. However, I perceive it as being used more often than actually applicable to people. Upon reading though, I was surprised that less than 0.2% of people have been found to be considered insane (Schweitzer, N.J., & Saks, M.J. (2011). As for the standards, I feel as if having either prior knowledge of the disorder or several expert opinions are needed to ensure the legitimacy of the plea. That being said, the neuroimaging should also be considered, if found to be more reliable and accurate upon further reflection. If a person is found to be legally insane, they should be treated medically as such. Furthermore,

In 1956, Charleston Heston played the leading role of Moses in the epic film, “The Ten Commandments”. The movie was nominated for seven Academy Awards, while Charleston Heston was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama) for his role. This family favorite has been aired over and over, and it remains one of the most popular films ever made

Obstetricians/Gynecologists and firefighters are occupations crucial to the United States because they offer safety and medical assistance to the citizens. Both careers require the ability to work in stressful situations and have medical knowledge. The jobs also consist of long work shifts. These qualities grab my attention due to the fact that I like to work with others, enjoy managing people, and respond well to high-stress situations. I am willing to take risks and I describe myself as ambitious and energetic. Also, verbal and communication skills come naturally to me. One major difference between an OB/GYN and firefighter is the typical work shift. Firefighters have a set shift at a firehouse where they get called out to emergencies. OB/GYNs work at a hospital or physician’s office and work twelve hour shifts but go home and get calls or pages saying they need to return. Being a firefighter also requires a large amount of physical fitness. While I would love to be in excellent physical shape, firefighting is too physical for my body. In addition, I believe it would be easier for me to endure the day to day requirements of an OB/GYN. Even though firefighters and OB/GYNs share many similar qualities, I would prefer to become an OB/GYN due to its daily tasks and lack of physical requirements.

Behavioral neuroscience or biological psychology employs the principles of brain pathology to the study of human behavior through genetic, physiological, and developmental operations, as well as, the brain’s capacity to change with experience. Since the second world war, crime was largely attributed to mostly economic, political, and social factors, along with what psychologists termed at the time, the “weak character” of mental disturbance, and brain biology was rarely considered. However, new advances in neuroscience and technology have allowed a number of studies that link brain development, impairment, and injury to criminal violence. This emerging field of psychology explores the brain at a microscopic level, focusing studies on the roles that the brain’s neurons, circuitry, neurotransmitters, and basic biological processes play in defining and molding all human behavior.