Distinguished Scholar Lecture

Computational Justice: Can Low-Cost Brain Scans, Digital Health Technologies and Artificial Intelligence Improve the Criminal Justice System?

Speaker: Francis X. Shen, J.D., Ph.D. (UMN Law School)

This presentation is designed for psychologists, other mental health professionals, and students and faculty.

Time:  This in-person session runs from 5:30 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.

Registration: 5:00 - 5:30 pm

Program: 5:30 - 7:00 pm

Location: 

Macalester College

Weyerhaeuser Boardroom
62 Macalester Street
St. Paul, MN   55105

Click here for an interactive campus map.

Level:  Introductory: Assumes post-doctoral education status and limited familiarity with topic.                                                                             

This program qualifies for 1.5 continuing education credits.           

About the Program:  

The United States criminal justice system routinely evaluates the past behavior, tracks the current behavior, and predicts the future behavior of millions of Americans. Yet the system’s tools for evaluating, tracking, and predicting behavior and decision-making have remained largely stagnant. This talk will explore whether, and how, technological advances in lower-cost, portable brain imaging, digital health utilizing smart phones, and artificial intelligence can be effectively and ethically applied in the criminal justice system. The talk will explore the promise, and peril, of collecting massive amounts of real-time data on justice-involved individuals, and harnessing AI to use that data to promote more fair and effective criminal procedures and punishments.

Participants will be able to:

1. Obtain introductory knowledge in the emerging fields of neurolaw and neuroethics, including positive and negative ways in which neuroscience might affect law.
2. Describe the ways in which neuroscience evidence is being proffered as evidence in criminal and civil contexts, and how new digital and AI technologies may be applied in future years for criminal sentencing.
3. Discuss the promises and limitations of future uses of neuroscience and computational psychiatry in law.

About the Presenter:

Francis X. Shen, JD, Ph.D., is a Professor of Law, McKnight Presidential Fellow, and faculty member in the Graduate Program in Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota. He is also an Instructor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School, and recently concluded a three-year term as the Executive Director of the MGH Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior. In fall 2020 he was the Florence Rogatz Visiting Professor of Law at Yale Law School, teaching Criminal Law. He directs the Shen Neurolaw Lab, whose Lab motto is, “Every story is a brain story.” He serves as the Executive Director of Education and Outreach for the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience, served as a member of the Neuroethics Subgroup of the National Institutes of Health Advisory Committee to the Director BRAIN Initiative Working Group, and speaks nationally and internationally about the emerging intersection of neuroscience, law, and ethics. Dr. Shen conducts empirical and legal research at the intersection of law, ethics, and neuroscience. He has co-authored three books, including the first Law and Neuroscience casebook (Aspen). He has also published articles on a range of neurolaw and neuroethics topics, including the ELSI of field-based highly portable MRI research, memory and lie detection, cognitive enhancement, criminal justice, brain injury, evidentiary admissibility, sports concussion, juror decision-making, criminal mental states, dementia, and mental health. He also teaches and writes on artificial intelligence and the law. Dr. Shen is a co-PI on multiple NIH funded neuroethics projects. With co-PIs Susan Wolf and Frances Lawrenz at the University of Minnesota and a national working group, Dr. Shen is co-leading an RF1 project on Highly Portable and Cloud-Enabled Neuroimaging Research: Confronting Ethics Challenges in Field Research with New Populations. With co-PIs Benjy Silverman and Justin Baker at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Shen is co-leading a project on the ethical, legal, and social implications of deep phenotyping research.

Continuing Education Credit:
The Minnesota Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Minnesota Psychological Association maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

ACCESSIBILITY ACCOMMODATIONS:  If you need disability related accommodations to make this event accessible, please contact Katie Benson at [email protected] or 952-928-4657.

To Register:

Registration Pricing:

MPA wants all members to have access to quality CE opportunities. If you are an MPA member and due to COVID-19 you are unable to work full time and can’t pay the full registration fee, please contact [email protected] to make other arrangements with staff.

Registration is now closed. Walk-up registrations are welcome.

Click here to view and download a PDF program flyer and registration form.

Refund/Cancellation Policy: A 100% refund will be made if the event is cancelled. Refunds, less a $5 handling fee, will be given if a written cancellation is received at least two working days before the scheduled program begins. No refund or transfer is given the day of the program.