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Articles on Criminal responsibility

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Probes that can transmit electricity inside the skull raise questions about personal autonomy and responsibility. Hellerhoff

It’s not my fault, my brain implant made me do it

Where does responsibility lie if a person acts under the influence of their brain implant? As neurotechnologies advance, a neuroethicist and a legal expert write that now’s the time to hash it out.
Your brain is still you. Andrew Mason

My brain made me do it, but does that matter?

Imagine that Brian promises to drive you to the airport but never shows up, and you miss your flight. When you confront Brian, he tells you that he remembered his promise but decided to watch a movie instead…
Although addiction is often characterised as a disease and not a crime, it is criminal to possess and use certain drugs. e_monk/Flickr

Why shouldn’t addiction be a defence to low-level crime?

In today’s article in our series Biology and Blame, Jeanette Kennett considers an inconsistency in the law’s approach to compulsion – addicts are responsible but others compelled to harmful behaviours…
Psychiatrists wanted people found ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’ to be dispatched to places like the Asylum for Criminal Lunatics Broadmoor. Illustrated London News, 1867/ Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

Psychiatry’s fight for a place in defining criminal responsibility

Are people with “diseases of the mind” responsible for their criminal acts? In the latest article in our series Biology and Blame, Ivan Crozier looks back at how psychiatrists tried to carve out a role…
Genetics is just the latest specialist knowledge threatening to take the question of criminal responsibility away from law and hand it over to science. Graham/Flickr

Genes made me do it: genetics, responsibility and criminal law

Welcome to Biology and Blame, a series of articles examining historical and current influences on the notion of criminal responsibility. Today, Arlie Loughnan considers the challenge to the legal system…

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