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

Munthe, Christian; Radovic, Susanna

We propose that the new Lombrosian vision will to a large extent and for a substantial amount of time suffer from what, in the ethical discussion of human genetics has become known as 'the therapeutic gap' (Juengst, 1994; Holtzman and Shapiro, 1998) . This is the situation that, while risk factors for conditions may be determined, there are no or very few effective ways of mitigating these risks through treatment interventions. 16 Since one strand of the new Lombrosian vision is walking the genetic path, this argument may be made by simply extending the well-known reasons from that field. In the neurobiological case, there is an uncertain and rather limited palette of invasive neuromedicine, so far basically untried in a new Lombrosian setting, some pharmacological treatments for various neuro-behavioural conditions with unsure effects on forensic risks and even less researched behavioural therapies (Glenn and Raine, 2014) . There is currently no treatment method with a solid evidence base for treating individuals with persistent aggressive antisocial behaviour even if pharmacological treatment for ADHD, various treatments for substance-related problems and educational programmes for children with disruptive behaviour hold some promise (NICE, 2013 (NICE, , 2014 Glenn and Raine, 2014) . Research continues and more promising therapies may eventually come to see the light of day, but the fact that a forensic risk-map is likely to be quite complex further discourages the prospect of any straightforward effective Lombrosian treatment P.