Mental illness

[King Phenomenon]

Do you think it's possible for someone to have a slight retardation of the brain even to the point of not being detected by a brain scan or human eye that would contribute to them committing a heinous crime?

 

[Brickjectivity]

Do you think it's possible for someone to have a slight retardation of the brain even to the point of not being detected by a brain scan or human eye that would contribute to them committing a heinous crime?

Brain scans can detect many things. Increasingly they can detect things by mapping blood flow, electrical activity, perhaps by tracking other compounds.

Brain scans cannot guarantee what was happening at the time someone committed a crime, unless there is an enduring problem. A person may have a sudden brain problem that disappears after the crime. They will nevertheless have to be tried and convicted.

By-the-way I just looked at the legal part of stack exchange about people who plead insanity. There is a legal difference between mental illness and insanity. A mentally ill person can be convicted of crimes. In various localities the standards vary, but sometimes a person can be guilty-but insane. Other times they can be not-guilty by reason of insanity. It depends on whether its determined that they had a choice to commit the crime. A person who is drunk or is drugged and commits a crime can still be prosecuted for it.

 

[The Hammer]

Do you think it's possible for someone to have a slight retardation of the brain even to the point of not being detected by a brain scan or human eye that would contribute to them committing a heinous crime?

I don't think that it is a "slight retardation" that causes a person to commit crimes. So criminality cannot be seen on a brain scan at all, or the tendency to be criminal. Considering Criminlity is different based on what country and Culture you are from.

People commit crimes for reasons such as desperation, the rush (adrenaline), or it's how they were raised.

 

[rocala]

Retardation, slight or otherwise is very different from mental illness. Are you perhaps asking if some "slight" forms may manifest as mental illness?

 

[King Phenomenon]

Brain scans can detect many things. Increasingly they can detect things by mapping blood flow, electrical activity, perhaps by tracking other compounds.

Brain scans cannot guarantee what was happening at the time someone committed a crime, unless there is an enduring problem. A person may have a sudden brain problem that disappears after the crime. They will nevertheless have to be tried and convicted.

By-the-way I just looked at the legal part of stack exchange about people who plead insanity. There is a legal difference between mental illness and insanity. A mentally ill person can be convicted of crimes. In various localities the standards vary, but sometimes a person can be guilty-but insane. Other times they can be not-guilty by reason of insanity. It depends on whether its determined that they had a choice to commit the crime. A person who is drunk or is drugged and commits a crime can still be prosecuted for it.

But can slight retardation even be detected by a brain scan? I'm not a doctor so I don't really know.

 

[King Phenomenon]

Retardation, slight or otherwise is very different from mental illness. Are you perhaps asking if some "slight" forms may manifest as mental illness?

No I'm just asking about slight retardations of the brain

 

[February-Saturday]

The entire concept of psychopathy is that it's a pathology that describes individuals who are likely to be repeat offenders, and are more likely to commit more heinous crimes that are harder to solve.

It's a disorder that's heavily linked to the now outdated concept of "inherent criminality," when it was believed that you had to have a deviant mind in order to justify crime. Later on, the banality of evil (and more recently, the Lucifer Effect) have shown that this isn't really the case.

On top of that, plenty of psychopaths can live normal, ethical lives. They're also detectable using brain scans, which directly correlates with how "severe" their symptoms are. This would be a visible retardation in the frontal lobe and the amygdala.

So, those are the two major issues. Not everyone who commits heinous crimes are neurologically predisposed to do so, and not everyone who is neurologically predisposed to heinous crimes actually commit them.

These neurological differences do, as you posit in your OP, contribute towards whatever action an individual might take, however. At the same time, paradoxically, psychopaths can also be more ethical and abstain more from crime; their nonconformity also means that psychopaths are more likely to commit heroic actions. They're individuals that mostly live in extremes, and they're often seen alternating between extremely "good" and extremely "bad" actions.

The truth is, however, there are a lot of contributing factors involved whenever anyone commits a heinous crime. Neurology, biochemistry, environmental conditioning, and so on are layered and complex fields. It really depends on the crime and the person. There's not really a one-size-fits-all.

 

[King Phenomenon]

The entire concept of psychopathy is that it's a pathology that describes individuals who are likely to be repeat offenders, and are more likely to commit more heinous crimes that are harder to solve.

It's a disorder that's heavily linked to the now outdated concept of "inherent criminality," when it was believed that you had to have a deviant mind in order to justify crime. Later on, the banality of evil (and more recently, the Lucifer Effect) have shown that this isn't really the case.

On top of that, plenty of psychopaths can live normal, ethical lives. They're also detectable using brain scans, which directly correlates with how "severe" their symptoms are. This would be a visible retardation in the frontal lobe and the amygdala.

So, those are the two major issues. Not everyone who commits heinous crimes are neurologically predisposed to do so, and not everyone who is neurologically predisposed to heinous crimes actually commit them.

These neurological differences do, as you posit in your OP, contribute towards whatever action an individual might take, however. At the same time, paradoxically, psychopaths can also be more ethical and abstain more from crime; their nonconformity also means that psychopaths are more likely to commit heroic actions. They're individuals that mostly live in extremes, and they're often seen alternating between extremely "good" and extremely "bad" actions.

The truth is, however, there are a lot of contributing factors involved whenever anyone commits a heinous crime. Neurology, biochemistry, environmental conditioning, and so on are layered and complex fields. It really depends on the crime and the person. There's not really a one-size-fits-all.

So what you're saying is that all brain retardations no matter how slight can be picked up on a brain scan?

 

[King Phenomenon]

So what you're saying is that all brain retardations no matter how slight can be picked up on a brain scans and if no retardations appear on the scan than it is a fact that their brain is 100% healthy?

 

[Eddi]

Do you think it's possible for someone to have a slight retardation of the brain even to the point of not being detected by a brain scan or human eye that would contribute to them committing a heinous crime?

Retardation and mental illness are two very separate things, they are not at all synonymous

 

[February-Saturday]

So what you're saying is that all brain retardations no matter how slight can be picked up on a brain scan?

No, but if they're severe enough to significantly contribute to heinous crime then they're going to show up on a scan.

 

[King Phenomenon]

Retardation and mental illness are two very separate things, they are not at all synonymous

I know that. So if nothing negative is picked up on a brain It could possibly be a mental illness in your opinion? Do you know if there's any scientific doubt with brain scans?

 

[King Phenomenon]

No, but if they're severe enough to significantly contribute to heinous crime then they're going to show up on a scan.

So in your opinion a slight brain retardation could not contribute to committing a heinous crime? How do doctors measure the level of retardation that would contribute to committing a heinous crime? Is there any scientific doubt regarding this matter as to how much brain retardation is required to contribute to committing a heinous act? I'm not a doctor so I don't know. I'm just asking.

 

[February-Saturday]

So in your opinion a slight brain retardation could not contribute to committing a heinous crime? How do doctors measure the level of retardation that would contribute to committing a heinous crime? Is there any scientific doubt regarding this matter as to how much brain retardation is required to contribute to committing a heinous act? I'm not a doctor so I don't know. I'm just asking.

These are all complicated questions that I'm not qualified to answer. However, I do own a copy of "The Psychopath Inside" by James Fallon, who was a neuroscientist with the job of answering these questions. If it's a topic you're interested in, I would pick up a copy.

 

[Brickjectivity]

But can slight retardation even be detected by a brain scan? I'm not a doctor so I don't really know.

I think you'd need a neurologist physician to find out about the current technology, because they hear about new techniques years before the news media. For a fee you can ask a neurologist physician on the internet. You could also try reading medical journals which talk about new developments.

 

[King Phenomenon]

I think you'd need a neurologist physician to find out about the current technology, because they hear about new techniques years before the news media. For a fee you can ask a neurologist physician on the internet. You could also try reading medical journals which talk about new developments.

Yeah maybe I will do that. Well there is a lot of intelligent people on this website so I thought maybe somebody would know

 

[King Phenomenon]

I think you'd need a neurologist physician to find out about the current technology, because they hear about new techniques years before the news media. For a fee you can ask a neurologist physician on the internet. You could also try reading medical journals which talk about new developments.

However my common sense does tell me that somebody can have a slight retardation and it wouldn't appear on a brain scan and it could be bad enough to contribute to them committing a crime. There's a lot we don't know about the brain so it makes sense. I could be wrong. I'm just spitballin.

 

[Brickjectivity]

However my common sense does tell me that somebody can have a slight retardation and it wouldn't appear on a brain scan and it could be bad enough to contribute to them committing a crime. There's a lot we don't know about the brain so it makes sense. I could be wrong. I'm just spitballin.

Some people are smarter than others. My guess is that if the retardation was due to some brain damage or developmental problem then probably it could be detected, but if they just weren't smart to begin with then maybe not. Ideally it would be something that you could fix, but I think in most cases the doctors couldn't fix it. If it were due to a brain tumor and a surgeon got it out then yay.

Besides the brain there could be an allergy causing something wrong or a parasite. Some people carry parasites in their brains and start to slowly go mad. It could also be due to a toxin, so maybe a blood test would reveal a problem. What if the person was sleeping in Radon gas? What if they were sleeping in a lot of carbon monoxide? I think those things could be detected.

 

[King Phenomenon]

Some people are smarter than others. My guess is that if the retardation was due to some brain damage or developmental problem then probably it could be detected, but if they just weren't smart to begin with then maybe not. Ideally it would be something that you could fix, but I think in most cases the doctors couldn't fix it. If it were due to a brain tumor and a surgeon got it out then yay.

Besides the brain there could be an allergy causing something wrong or a parasite. Some people carry parasites in their brains and start to slowly go mad. It could also be due to a toxin, so maybe a blood test would reveal a problem. What if the person was sleeping in Radon gas? What if they were sleeping in a lot of carbon monoxide? I think those things could be detected.

Well I don't think someone's smarts plays a role in whether or not they can detect a slight brain retardation

 

[Brickjectivity]

Well I don't think someone's smarts plays a role in whether or not they can detect a slight brain retardation

Yeah, but what if they're not retarded and are just not smart to begin with? Then there is nothing to detect.