The Return of Lombroso? Ethical Aspects of (Visions of) Preventive Forensic Screening

Munthe, Christian; Radovic, Susanna

As we have seen, the features of whatever procedure is thought to follow a positive detection will decisively impact the assessment of the quality of the detection method. This reasoning may be reversed as well: if the detection method creates a high level of false positives and a thus boost risks of 'overtreatment', the side-effect profile of the intervention will become more serious. But the pros and cons of the intervention do, of course, also provide reasons for and against a programme in their own right. Already in the health case, this issue can be quite complicated, as the fact that a proposed intervention has some positive effects does not mean that the programme confers net benefit on those positively tested (Verweij, 2000: 51-56) . 15 In the new Lombrosian case, only one type of P is easily comparable to the health case, that of treatment. This strategy will, if efficacious, reduce the forensic risk of I, while leaving him or her unrestrained and in contact with society. In fact, if it is combined with a release from otherwise applied measures of restriction and/or exclusion, it may even serve to promote the inclusion and liberty of I (by reducing the risk to a level where the other strategies become inapplicable or unjustified). However, such efficacy must, of course, be balanced against negative side effects of various kinds. These may be of a familiar sort from a health science perspective and may, in the case of a treatment style P, be assessed accordingly.