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Applicable in criminal proceedings in the guise of expert witness testimony, forensic psychology includes a plethora of specific agendas, such as determining competency to stand trial , and procedural strategies in which practitioners are forensic amicus curiae (that is, “friends of the court in forensic matters”). Advances in high-resolution brain scanning technology (henceforth, neuroscans ) have been highly infl uential in this regard, launching the third product— forensic neuropsychology —which progressively has found a niche in criminal cases carrying the death penalty. Neuroscans show juries cortical regions in high definition and in colorful images indicating increased or decreased blood fl ow. Triers of fact must decide whether the neuroscans are merely descriptive or clinically diagnostic. Expert forensic scientists can argue either way as “hired guns.” Still, neuroscans are becoming commonplace in cases featuring “diminished capacity” defenses. This new subspecialty merging psychology and neurology with legal standards dates back decades earlier to advances in general neuropsychology , which stimulated advances in medical technologies. Forensic neuro scientists have made compelling progress in criminal minds analysis featuring the startling science of neuroscans— the fourth new product. This merging of neuroscience and medical technology provides evidence of a “diminished mind” owing to cortical lesions and cerebral traumas. Although an infant science, neuroscans provide grist to scientists debating descriptive analysis: what are the scans describing occurring deep in cortices of the brain? Do neuroscans show the workings of criminal minds in real time? These neuroscans are on the rise as a new scientific ace up the sleeve of criminal attorneys. Always eager for new technology, this rising star in technology has hatched a neuroscience of criminal minds with the new legal component of neurolaw —the fifth new tool—addressed in Chapter 7 . Improvement by revision highlights the venerable sixth improved product—Robert Hare ’ s psychometric indicator of psychopathy, The Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (2003). His PCL-R instrument will be discussed in more detail. Hare ’ s test has become the universal standard for measuring reliably and validly psychopathic traits worldwide. Yet another rising star among new tools of 21st-century brain analysis comes from adolescent neurobiology —the seventh new product. The adolescent brain, young and developing, is a sapient brain typified by a dangerous paradox . Is the adolescent brain the breezeway to juvenile crime? Paradoxically, neuroscience tells us that young sapient brains are intent upon cerebral bingeing, observed in rapid proliferation of tissue, offset by the “pruning” back of seldom-used neurons in later adolescence. Also, young brains seek to squash boredom of routine with new stimuli as a priority almost whimsically as though entitled to do so. Is this a normal brain condition?
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