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Neuroscientists in court

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 14, pages 730–736 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Neuroscientific evidence is increasingly being offered in court cases. Consequently, the legal system needs neuroscientists to act as expert witnesses who can explain the limitations and interpretations of neuroscientific findings so that judges and jurors can make informed and appropriate inferences. The growing role of neuroscientists in court means that neuroscientists should be aware of important differences between the scientific and legal fields, and, especially, how scientific facts can be easily misunderstood by non-scientists, including judges and jurors.

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Figure 1: Cumulative growth in the number of 'law and neuroscience' publications.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are members of The MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience, Vanderbilt Law School, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Preparation of this article was supported, in part, by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Its contents reflect the views of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of either the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation or The MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience. We are grateful for helpful comments from N. Farahany, D. Kaye, M. Saks and F. Shen.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Law School and Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, 37203, Tennessee, USA

    Owen D. Jones

  2. Department of Psychology and Neurosciences Program, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    Anthony D. Wagner

  3. UCSF/UC Hastings Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy, Hastings College of the Law, University of California, San Francisco, 94102, California, USA

    David L. Faigman

  4. Departments of Radiology, Neurology, Neurobiology, and Biomedical Engineering, Washington University, St. Louis, 63110, Missouri, USA

    Marcus E. Raichle

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Correspondence to Owen D. Jones.

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Jones, O., Wagner, A., Faigman, D. et al. Neuroscientists in court. Nat Rev Neurosci 14, 730–736 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3585

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