Ethical and Social

• Strength - Ethical

  • Consent
  • ppts taking part consented to this and agreed to take part in the PET scans
  • Uni of California approved the study in line with APA guidelines
  • HOWEVER, some argue that due to the nature of the plea in the NGRI group, they weren't able to give their full valid consent
• Weakness - Ethical/Social

  • Socially sensitive
  • findings may be misinterpreted by society who may think brain activity drives them to kill and that violence is out of their control
  • Raine in his conclusions was clear that it doesn't mean this but once the study is published there no control on how people view and it will always be misused
  • this may lead to people labelling others with brain dysfunction as 'murderers' or people seeing brain scans as a way of diagnostic
• Weakness - Social

  • Legal system
  • more common for courts to use brain scans as evidence
  • Raine was clear in his conclusions that abnormalities are pre-disposing factors only, other factors may play an influence
  • also clear that this does not mean NGRI offenders are not responsible not imply brain scans should be used as diagnosis
  • negative implications if they are not regulated within the court room
• Strength - Social

  • Legal system
  • findings may affect the punishment systems
  • if violent behaviour is related to brain activity, it is unlikely that prisons will rehabilitate offenders
  • this could mean that violent prisoners are transferred to another prison which poses a risk of harm to other staff or prisoners
  • Raine's research suggests that there needs to be alternative interventions and programmes in place to help those violent prisoners