Hart Publishing The Emotional Brain and the Guilty Mind: Novel Paradigms of Culpability and Punishment

Product Description This book applies insights on emotions, moral decision-making and behaviour that have emerged from behavioural and brain studies as an empirical premise to develop a holistic paradigm of culpabilitya paradigm that gives more prominence to emotion-related factors within its relevant psychological set. The book provides a broader paradigm of the 'legally relevant mind' in which emotions are afforded due prominence in defining the normative competences that are required to meet culpable states of mind. It offers normative arguments for incorporating emotional competences as part of the issue of culpability and emphasises that a notion of culpability that more strongly takes emotional competences into account is more able to capture the essence of blameworthiness and is in closer compliance with the principle of personal guilt as well as retributivist and rehabilitative approaches to punishment. The book tests the newly developed paradigm of culpability on specific culpability doctrinesnotably, mens rea, insanity, and diminished capacity. After interfacing these doctrines with the newly developed paradigm of culpability, the book reconsiders their conceptual substance and provides revised formulations of their standards. The book suggests that the implementation of the holistic paradigm of culpability supports the inclusion of extreme socio-environmental deprivation defense and concludes with an analysis of the potential implications of this general paradigm of culpability for forensic and correctional contexts. Review "This book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in criminal law and neuroscience. Coppola's agenda for reformulating criminal responsibility and punishment is as compelling as it is controversial. The book is a must read." --Dennis M Patterson, Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School, USA"With lucid prose and a comprehensive grasp of multiple literatures, Coppola deftly weaves behavioral and neuroscientific insights into longstanding debates about crime and punishment. What emerges is a compelling tapestry of suggested reforms that have the potential to transform notions of culpability, sentencing determinations, and the experience and ramifications of punishment. This powerful and provocative masterwork is a must-read for anyone interested in criminal justice theory or reform." --Lea Johnston, Professor of Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law, USA"This timely and groundbreaking book uses empirical evidence from social psychology and neuroscience to argue that our understanding of criminal offenders is cartoonishly emaciated. It is not just our rationality that makes us responsible agents, Coppola claims, but also our social and emotional skills, our relationships, and our environment. Coppola convincingly argues that if we hold a robust, holistic view of offenders we are required to make radical changes to our responsibility and punishment practices. This excellent book is required reading for philosophers and lawyers interested in responsibility, as well as anyone impacted by the criminal justice system - that is, everyone." --Katrina L Sifferd, Professor and Chair of Philosophy, Elmhurst University, USA"Federica Coppola is a sophisticated, careful analyst of the relation of the new neuroscience and it shows in The Emotional Brain and the Guilty Mind. The book sets forth a bold and controversial argument that will challenge and instruct readers. It is a must for those interested in the relation of science to law generally and neuroscience to law in particular." --Stephen J Morse, Professor of Psychology and Law in Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, USA About the Author Federica Coppola is Lecturer in Criminal Law and Neuroscience at Columbia Law School.