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Brain Scans Predict Which Criminals Are More Likely To Re-offend
ananyo writes "In a twist that evokes the dystopian science fiction of writer Philip K. Dick, neuroscientists have found a way to predict whether convicted felons are likely to commit crimes again from looking at their brain scans. Convicts showing low activity in a brain region associated with decision-making and action are more likely to be arrested again, and sooner. The researchers studied a group of 96 male prisoners just before their release. They used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the prisoners' brains during computer tasks in which subjects had to make quick decisions and inhibit impulsive reactions. The scans focused on activity in a section of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a small region in the front of the brain involved in motor control and executive functioning. The researchers then followed the ex-convicts for four years to see how they fared. Among the subjects of the study, men who had lower ACC activity during the quick-decision tasks were more likely to be arrested again after getting out of prison, even after the researchers accounted for other risk factors such as age, drug and alcohol abuse and psychopathic traits."
Does the more impulsive decision-making mean they're more likely to commit new crimes, or simply more likely to get caught?
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
is not a prediction...like saying jumping off tall builidings is survivable for those that survive.... it's journalistic craptasticnous
You use this test as an excuse to keep certain people in jail for political reasons.
Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
You use this test as an excuse to keep certain people in jail for political reasons.
So, let me get this straight...you're going to continue to incarcerate me, for something I might do in the future?
Believe me, I'm not questioning whether this would actually happen or not. We've proven corruption knows no bounds.
I'm merely pointing out the "minor" issues with this concept, regardless of where our Rights have dissolved away.
We have the power, it's just that when half of Americans vote for people promising to bring the government to the knees, you don't wind up with the best or the brightest being elected.
Which is strange, I would have thought voting for people looking to screw up the government would be just the ticket for effective and useful governance. Who'dathunk.
According to a 2011 Pew study, more than 40 percent of ex-cons commit crimes within three years of their release and wind up back behind bars. As reported on BBC Radio in 2005, the recidivism rates for released prisoners in the U.S. is 60% compared with 50% in the United Kingdom. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics of nearly 300,000 prisoners released in 15 states in 1994, 67.5% were rearrested within 3 years. A study of prisoners released in 1983 estimated 62.5%. In general, U.S. prisons offer very little to inmates that would keep them from repeating crimes once they're released. Perhaps we should rethink this strategy?
If you talk to a psychiatrist specializing in Psychosomatic medicine they will tell you being a better person is a simple matter of will. If you want to be a good person you will be. The brain will fix itself. Mind over matter.
As a patient to one of these in a system full of them, I approve this message
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Now let's first use it on our politicians.
Why? We already know.
To calibrate the tests.
They're measuring re-arrest, not recidivism (committing new crimes). There is a difference: not all who commit crimes get arrested, and not all who get arrested have committed a crime. One of the key principles in _How to Lie with Statistics_ (excellent book) was the following:
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
> We have the power, it's just that when half of Americans vote for people promising to bring the government to the knees, you don't wind up with the best or the brightest being elected.
Or half the people hopelessly defending a corrupted system of horizontal of checks and balances government has the capabilities to heal themselves. The only solution to that is the vertical check: nullifying government when necessary.
When you have 95% of the country always voting for their team, based on the assertion that the other team is wrong, nothing changes.
Considering that the GOP has promised specifically to burn the country down to make President Obama a 1 term President and that those politicians have all been reelected, I'd suggest that there is indeed a substantial number of voters that are in fact voting wrong.
If you really think the parties are identical, then you haven't been paying attention. Yes, on a few issues there is way too much agreement, but if you seriously can't see a difference on issues of taxation and social issues, you're one of those "low information voters" that I keep hearing about.
It's not a case where there's some debate, the GOP has been promising specifically to destroy the government.