ArticleBehavioral sciences & the law2022
A jury of scientists: Formal education in biobehavioral sciences reduces the odds of punitive criminal sentencing.
Article in Behavioral sciences & the law, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Neural mechanisms of awareness of action.PNAS nexus · 2026Article
- The gut is guilty! Will legalomics transform forensic and legal psychology?Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Challenging the prescientific frameworks of criminal justice: neurobiology and criminolytic interventions in the legalome era.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- The Metabolic Mind: Revisiting Glucose Metabolism and Justice Involvement in Neurolaw.NeuroSci · 2025Article
- From Bacillus Criminalis to the Legalome: Will Neuromicrobiology Impact 21st Century Criminal Justice?Brain sciences · 2025Article
- The Big Minority View: Do Prescientific Beliefs Underpin Criminal Justice Cruelty, and Is the Public Health Quarantine Model a Remedy?International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- The Legalome: Microbiology, Omics and Criminal Justice.Microbial biotechnology · 2025Article
- A jury of scientists: Formal education in biobehavioral sciences reduces the odds of punitive criminal sentencing.Behavioral sciences & the law · 2022Article
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2 authors.
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Abstract
This study examines how formal education in biological and behavioral sciences may impact punishment intuitions (views on criminal sentencing, free will, responsibility, and dangerousness) in cases involving neurobiological evidence. In a survey experiment, we compared intuitions between biobehavioral science and non-science university graduates by presenting them with a baseline case without a neurobiological explanation for offending followed by one of two cases with a neurobiological explanation (described as either innate or acquired biological influences to offending). An ordinal logistic regression indicated that both science and non-science graduates selected significantly more severe punishments for the baseline case as compared to when an innate neurobiological explanation for offending was provided. However, across all cases, science graduates selected significantly less severe sentences than non-science graduates, and only science graduates' decisions were mediated by free will and responsibility attributions. Findings are discussed in relation to scientific understandings of behavior, the impact of science education on attitudes towards punishment, and potential criminal-legal implications.
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