the court system and neuroscience

The relationship between Neuroscience and the court system is growing according to Deborah Denno and Dr. Robert Gur who came in on September 26. They not only spoke about the increasing respect and use of neurology in order to prove mostly psychological illnesses such as schizophrenia, they showed that it is still looked down upon in some cases. Deborah Denno explained that there are many instances where judges don't allow neurological evidence such as a cat scan to prove some sort of disorder associated in the brain. Why is this you may ask? According to Deborah Denno, this is because the judge's don't want the jury to be intimidated by the data that they are provided with. This intimidation can lead to a biased view, which she explains is ridiculous only because of the other evidence that is allowed into court. One such example was that an individual was allowed to bring in the shirt of a dead child who was murdered violently. This evidence in the general eye seen as just as intimidating if not more so then brain scans that can identify a serious psychological issue that the individual needs help for. Another argument that Deborah said the judges made involved the reliability of brain scans on an individual. They made question about how reliable the brain scans were, if they were reliable at all.  In argument, Deborah stated the well known fact that eyewitness accounts are the most unreliable of the sources however they are allowed in the court system quite often, as well as unreliable DNA and fingerprint scans.  Because of these criticisms, neuroscience is not as growing or allowed throughout the court systems which is preventing the proper treatment for those suffering from psychological disorders. Without the expansion of knowledge about neuroscience we will throw more people in prisons that need to be treated for psychological disorders.