TY - JOUR AU - Kim, Paula PY - 2014/04/04 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Psychopathy, Genes, and the Criminal Justice System JF - Science and Technology Law Review JA - stlr VL - 15 IS - 2 SE - Student Notes DO - 10.7916/stlr.v15i2.3988 UR - https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/stlr/article/view/3988 SP - AB - <p>This Note examines whether, and at which stages, a criminal&nbsp;defendant should be permitted to offer genetic evidence of a predisposition to&nbsp;psychopathy. Drawing on multidisciplinary sources, including the work of legal&nbsp;scholars, neurobiologists, psychologists, and medical researchers, the Note&nbsp;discusses psychopathy, its symptoms, and how it is measured, along with the&nbsp;proposed genetic and environmental causes of the disorder. The Note then&nbsp;examines current evidence rules and trends in the admissibility of genetic evidence&nbsp;at the guilt/innocence phase of criminal trials and at sentencing. After&nbsp;discussing the potential effects of admitting evidence of a genetic basis for&nbsp;psychopathy at both of these phases, the Note concludes that the stigmatizing&nbsp;nature of the disorder and the uncertainty over its causes make it inadvisable to&nbsp;admit this type of evidence at the guilt/innocence phase of trial. However,&nbsp;admitting this evidence at sentencing is not objectionable.</p> ER -