Policing and the Brain: How Neuroscience Can Contribute to Police Reform

March 31, 2021, 12:00 PM

The language of medical science has been used by law enforcement to justify police brutality. For example, a police officer present at the killing of George Floyd suggested that Floyd might have been experiencing “excited delirium,” a term that, while not recognized by major medical associations, is sometimes used by law enforcement to describe aggression resulting from illicit substance use.  

Though there is potential for problematic and biased use of medical science by law enforcement, could neuroscience hold promise for shaping evidence-based reforms?  

This panel on March 31st explored this question through a discussion of recent neuroscience research into emotions and the brain, and the significance of this research for police reform efforts. 

Panelists

• Introduction: Carmel Shachar, Executive Director, The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School
• Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD, University Distinguished Professor, Northeastern University and Chief Scientific Officer, Center for Law, Brain & Behavior (CLBB)
• Judge (Ret.) Andre M. Davis, JD, Advisory Board Member, CLBB; Circuit Judge (ret.), the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; and City Solicitor (ret.), Baltimore City Department of Law 
• Dr. Altaf Saadi, MD, MSc, Neurologist, Massachusetts General Hospital and Instructor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School
• Moderator: Elyssa Spitzer, JD, Senior Fellow in Law and Applied Neuroscience, CLBB and the Petrie-Flom Center 

Learn more about the issues.

• Mallory Sofastaii, “Baltimore through the eyes of the outgoing city solicitor,” WMAR Baltimore (March 6, 2020). 
• Joshua Budhu, Méabh O’Hare, and Altaf Saadi, “How ‘excited delirium’ is misused to justify police brutality,” Brookings How We Rise blog(August 10, 2020). 
• Arun Rath and MAtt Baskin, interview Dr. Altaf Saadi, “No Medical Justification For Police Chokeholds, Neurologists Say,” GBH News (December 28, 2020). 

Watch the fully captioned event video. 

This event is part of the Project on Law and Applied Neuroscience, a collaboration between the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. 

CLBB Executive Director Dr. Francis Shen presented his work on the ethics of emerging neurotechnologies and their criminal justice implications to the Science Policy Group at UC Berkeley. The Science Policy Group is composed of policy-minded scientists who are committed to bridging gaps between science, technology, policy, and equity. 

March 15, 2021, 12:00pm-1:00pm ET | Center for Law, Brain and Behavior

In 2014 the first Law and Neuroscience casebook was co-authored by Owen Jones, Jeffrey Schall, and CLBB Executive Director Francis Shen. Publication of the casebook and momentum in the field of neurolaw have contributed to the emergence of law and neuroscience courses in schools across the country. This year marks the publication of the second edition of the Law and Neuroscience casebook. Reflecting the speed at which the field is developing, 45% of cases and publications in the second edition were published since the first edition in 2014. The new edition includes over 600 new references and citations to recent developments, with 260 new readings, including 27 new case selections. 
This event served as a book launch for the new edition, and featured a dialogue between the co-authors of the casebook and two professors who are currently teaching from the new materials: CLBB Managing Director Judge (Ret.) Nancy Gertner, who introduced the first Law & Neuroscience course at Harvard Law School, and neuroscientist Dr. Sally Bernardina Seraphin, who created the first Law and Neuroscience course at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. All are welcome to watch the recording of the event to learn more about the field of neurolaw.

November 16, 2020, 12:00-1:00 pm EDT

Advances in neuroimaging, genetics, and mobile health apps are creating unprecedented opportunities to detect subtle brain changes that may predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. But how much trust should we have in these new technologies, who will have access to them, and how should the law respond when litigants proffer novel evidence of their brain states? This panel will explore technological innovations in dementia detection, and their ethical, social, and legal implications.
This event is part of the Project on Law and Applied Neuroscience, a collaboration between the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.

Sept. 17, 2020, 7:00-8:30pm EDT

On Thursday, September 17 2020 at 7pm Eastern, CLBB Founder and Co-Director Judith G. Edersheim, JD, MD, will present “Neuroanatomy of a False Confession,” sponsored by the Boston Society of Neurology, Neurosurgery, & Psychiatry and co-sponsored by the MGH Center for Law, Brain and Behavior. To access the virtual meeting please click here, and to register for the event, please click here.