Faculty Bibliography

Neuroethics and neurolaw are fields of study that involve the interface of neuroscience with clinical and legal decision-making. The past two decades have seen increasing attention being paid to both fields, in large part because of the advances in neuroimaging techniques and improved ability to visualize and measure brain structure and function. Traumatic brain injury (TBI), along with its acute and chronic sequelae, has emerged as a focus of neuroethical issues, such as informed consent for treatment and research, diagnostic and prognostic uncertainties, and the subjectivity of interpretation of data. The law has also more frequently considered TBI in criminal settings for exculpation, mitigation and sentencing purposes and in tort and administrative law for personal injury, disability and worker's compensation cases. This article provides an overview of these topics with an emphasis on the current challenges that the neuroscience of TBI faces in the medicolegal arena

Many of the mentally ill prisoners in this country have been convicted of drug crimes. New York State's Rockefeller Drug Laws from the 1970s established harsh sentences for drug crimes to quell a perceived epidemic. These laws were reformed in 2004 to allow the option of resentencing, with the possibility of lighter sentences. However, there is no formal mechanism in New York for a postconviction hearing for competency to be resentenced, thus affecting the severely mentally ill who were sentenced under the old Rockefeller laws. The purpose of this article is to highlight the psychiatric and legal difficulties that can arise without an option for a resentencing competency hearing and to argue that despite the low number of inmates to whom this would apply, there is an important duty to ensure due process to the mentally ill

Lying and deception are behaviors that have been studied and discussed extensively in the scientific, philosophical and legal communities for centuries. The purpose of this article is to provide a general overview of the literature and thinking to date about deception, followed by an analysis of the efficacy and evolution of lie detection techniques. The first part explores the definitions of lying, from animal behaviorists' perspectives to philosophical theories, along with demographics and research about the prevalence of lying and characteristics of those who lie. This is followed by a discussion of possible motivations for lying, moral arguments about the legitimacy of or prohibition against lying, and developmental theorists' explanations for the growth of a human being's capacity to lie. The first section provides an introduction for the second part, a historical and critical review of lie detection techniques. Early methods, such as phrenology and truth serums are contrasted with more modern-day approaches, such as polygraphy and functional MRIs. Conclusions are drawn about whether technology has really advanced the art of detecting deception. Finally, the article enters a discussion about the law's response to lie detection methods and to deception in general. United States landmark cases, at both the state and federal level, are critiqued with regard to their impact on the admissibility into court of lie detection methods as evidence. Just as the scientific community has been wary of embracing many of these methods, so has the legal community. Through a review of the legal, scientific and pseudo-scientific issues surrounding deception, a greater understanding is reached of the complexity of this universal and morally loaded behavior

OBJECTIVE: Protecting and safeguarding persons with impaired decisional capacity are among the critical functions of a psychiatric hospital. The objective of this study was to investigate the elements of these functions as they relate to sexual behavior on an adult acute care inpatient psychiatric unit and to develop a policy to prevent or at least manage such behavior. METHODS: The authors undertook an extensive literature review of articles and legal cases. The review was presented at numerous meetings of staff and interdisciplinary teams on the adult teaching unit at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. The findings from the review and the results of staff discussions were used in creating the policy. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: In the acute care setting, it may be both reasonable and prudent to prevent all sexual interactions between patients, especially given the potential risks of such behavior. Concerns include the transmission of sexually transmitted disease, reproductive issues, and the legal implications of nonconsensual activity. Despite these concerns, adult psychiatric inpatients should be granted as many rights as are possible without having an adverse effect on their treatment or recovery. There is currently no standard for a sexual behavior policy for psychiatric inpatients. Thus ward staff are left with minimal guidance and potential confusion in the event that sexual incidents do occur, and there is a greater likelihood of arbitrary responses. The policy developed through this study is an example of how individual institutions can enforce a structured protocol when dealing with an ambiguous and difficult issue