April 11, 2025 | Criminal Defense
In criminal defense cases, neuroscience involves using what we know about the brain and its functions to help explain someone’s actions or choices. It can help provide context for defendants that can sometimes lead to better understanding or more favorable case results. Below are some of the ways neuroscience is used in criminal cases:
Neuroscience Evidence in Juvenile Cases
When young people get into trouble, neuroscience can offer important explanations about their brain development, affecting how the courts handle their cases. Since teenagers’ brains are not yet fully mature, they might not entirely understand the risks or long-term effects of their actions.
Neuroscience plays a valuable role in juvenile defense and sentencing because:
- The part of the brain focused on planning, making good decisions, and controlling impulses – the prefrontal cortex – is still growing during the teen years.
- Science shows that adolescents are more sensitive to outside pressure and tend to act impulsively without thinking clearly about possible outcomes.
Using neuroscience, lawyers can argue effectively that young people should get milder punishments and that courts emphasize helping and rehabilitating them rather than solely punishing them.
Assessing Competency to Stand Trial
Competency to stand trial means a defendant must be mentally able to understand what’s happening in court and to actively participate in their defense. The law protects people who may not fully comprehend the situation due to their mental state or neurological issues. Neuroscience can help assess a defendant’s competency by providing objective data about their brain’s functioning.
For instance:
- Specialists use detailed psychological evaluations or interviews to see how clearly the defendant understands court proceedings or charges.
- Brain scans can help detect injuries or conditions that disrupt normal thinking, memory, or decision-making.
- Evaluations may uncover mental impairments or disorders that are serious enough to keep defendants from fully engaging in their trial or helping their lawyer.
Neuroscientific tools can make sure defendants are treated fairly and thoughtfully within the legal system.
Mitigating Factors for Sentencing
Neuroscience can sometimes help explain to courts why someone made certain choices or committed a crime, especially by showing how brain function or injuries can influence behavior.
The prosecution is going to try to present aggravating factors, so it’s important for defense attorneys to present evidence to show a defendant has brain challenges, trauma, or mental health struggles to support arguments for lower sentencing or sentences that involve treatment.
This is important because:
- Brain injuries or developmental issues can reduce someone’s full control of their actions, making courts view their degree of responsibility differently.
- Judges may consider alternatives to prison, such as treatment or therapy, if they feel the defendants’ criminal behavior is strongly affected by their neurological condition.
- Attorneys can use neuroscientific evidence to argue that focused treatment or supervised rehabilitation offers greater benefits to the community and the defendant than a heavy prison sentence.
By demonstrating clearly how brain function contributes to someone’s actions, neuroscience could open the possibility of more compassionate and effective approaches to sentencing. For example, a felony could be reduced to a misdemeanor.
Explaining Impulsive or Violent Behavior
Neuroscience can provide important insights into why someone might act impulsively or even violently, especially by explaining how certain brain areas relate to behavior. When there’s damage or a disturbance in specific regions of the brain, it can become hard for people to control their impulses or aggression.
Courts and attorneys might consider neuroscientific explanations when looking at aggressive or impulsive crimes because:
- Damage to the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which helps with making decisions and managing impulses, might contribute to poor choices, quick anger, or risky behaviors.
- Problems with brain chemicals (like dopamine) can lead to imbalances, making someone more prone to aggression or mood swings.
- Specific neurological conditions, brain injuries, or challenges related to development can cause someone to behave in ways they normally wouldn’t.
Showing these neurological issues in a defense case can help lawyers and courts understand the real reasons behind aggressive or impulsive behavior, possibly affecting how defendants are treated.
If you have any questions about criminal matters or how neuroscience is used in these cases, contact us today to schedule a free consultation with a criminal defense lawyer.
Contact the Cincinnati Criminal Defense Attorneys at Suhre & Associates DUI and Criminal Defense Lawyers For Help Today
For more information, contact the criminal defense attorneys at Suhre & Associates DUI and Criminal Defense Lawyers give us a call today at (513) 333-0014 or visit us at our Cincinnati Law Office.
Suhre & Associates DUI and Criminal Defense Lawyers – Cincinnati
600 Vine Street, Suite 1004
Cincinnati, OH 45202
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