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

Munthe, Christian; Radovic, Susanna

In a former analysis of the research ethical problems in forensic psychiatry, we addressed the relationship between the goal (in terms of targeted values) of forensic psychiatric research and other types of criminological science in relation to that of public health (Munthe et al., 2010) . One of us has argued, in another context, that the ethical assessment of screening programmes should apply an 'institutional approach', meaning that the balancings of pros and cons and recognition or ignorance of suggested values may to some extent vary depending on the institutional context of the programme (Juth and Munthe, 2012) . Similarly, it has been argued that the goals and ethics of public health may legitimately vary across societal sectors, as these may have their roots in the ethoses of different practices (Wilson, 2009 ) and/or different roles to play in a good society (Coggon, 2010) .