Law Abidance / Delinquency through the Lens of Neurobiology

The paper is interdisciplinary in nature: it is written at the intersection of legal theory and neuroscience. In legal science, the study of the causes of illegal behavior is carried out at different levels (psychological, sociological and philosophical). The novelty that this paper introduces is that it is proposed to conduct research on the causes of illegal behavior at the neurobiological level, which is almost more powerful than those mentioned above. The paper is aimed at solving the problem of using a neurobiological portrait of a person or a social group to prevent offenses. According to neurobiological features, people are divided into 4 categories: visual, auditory, kinesthetic and digital, which implies a different characteristic of them in terms of law abidance/delinquency. Knowledge of the neurobiological features of the subjects of law will allow the state to act “ahead of the curve”, and not wait for the commission of illegal actions to begin the fight against them. The question of the gender brain (or the features of the female and male brains) and its influence on the nature of delinquency is being investigated. The features of the adolescent brain are considered, which are able to activate not only prosocial behavior, but also antisocial. The use of neuroscience to explain the antisocial behavior of adolescents allows a deeper understanding of juvenile delinquency. The understanding of the peculiarities of the adolescent brain, it seems possible to develop many different measures in advance to direct their energy in the right way. Finally, neurobiological knowledge is also used to study the legal behavior of older people. The gerontological brain has both advantages and disadvantages. Despite the fact that older people are law-abiding, and the level of delinquency among them is law, it is extremely shortsighted to abandon the behavior of older people in the field of law, especially in the light of demographic problems existing in Russia.

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