Scientism, Ethics and Evil: From Mens Rea to Cerebrum Reus

• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X221104959
• Date: 01 July 2022
• Published date: 01 July 2022
• Author: Mark T. Palermo
• Subject Matter: Commentary

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X221104959

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2022, Vol. 66(9) 1036 –1048

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X221104959

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Commentary

Scientism, Ethics and Evil:

From Mens Rea to Cerebrum

Reus

Mark T. Palermo1

Abstract

Can criminology thrive on quantitative studies alone? Can evil be operationalized?

Quantitative work may have, for the time being, supplanted common sense, personal

experience and resulting in an improbable “Periodic Table of humanity”. Has the

construction of the psychopathic concept surpassed positivist “constitutional”

formulations and translated into effective (re)habilitation of individuals lacking affiliative

ethical behaviors? Or has it simply fueled a deterministic neo-Lombrosian truism:

moral development has a brain. Has it helped so far? Has letting go of fundamental

moral concepts, implicit in organized religion - but pervasive in most cultures

irrespective of religious affiliation and devotion - in favor of causal explanations based

solely on neuroimaging, personality inventories or structured emotional decoding

tasks, made a difference in the life – or in the defense for that matter - of wrongdoers

diagnosed as intrinsically evil?

Keywords

scientism, evil, ethics, psychopathy

“Look at it with your magnifying glass, Mr. Holmes.”

“Yes, I am doing so.”

“You are aware that no two thumb-marks are alike?”

“I have heard something of the kind”

Conan Doyle

In a time of a purported ideology-free and a-theoretical data-driven vision of the world,

the science of crime—allegedly value-free—is undergoing a “transformative” event,

1The Law Art and Behavior Foundation, Roma, Italy

Corresponding Author:

Mark T. Palermo, The Law Art and Behavior Foundation, Via Chiana, 35, Roma 00198, Italy.

Email: mtpalermo@lawartbehavior.org

1104959IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X221104959International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyPalermo

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