Neurointerventions and Punishment

An increasing number of theorists have become preoccupied with the idea of using neurointerventions as a means of preventing offenders from reoffending. However, a traditional criticism against the rehabilitationist ideal of treating offenders in order to avoid recidivism has been that such an approach violates considerations of justice. The purpose of this chapter is to examine whether this traditional justice-based criticism is warranted if neurointerventions are administered as a crime prevention tool. It is suggested that this need not be the case. More specifically, it is argued that: 1) neurointerventions can be imposed as a type of punishment; 2) if this is the case, then properly imposed neurointerventions do not involve a breach of retributivist proportionality considerations; and 3) such interventions cannot be excluded as a type of punishment that should be banned in principle. Therefore, even though there may be other objections to the use of neurointerventions in the criminal justice system, the traditional justice-based objection against rehabilitationism does not seem sufficient to rule out the possibility of treating offenders by the use of neurointerventions.