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Editorial
Heart-rate study raises new issues for criminal justice
Thursday, September 10, 2015
In the 2002 movie "Minority Report," Tom Cruise uses hand gestures to control holographic computers and and receives personal advertising messages, as he walks through public spaces, identified by biometric eye scans.
While those technologies are close to common reality 13 years later, is the main plot of the film -- predicting criminal acts before they happen -- that gets Cruise's character into trouble.
Could it cause trouble for young men who just happen to be in good condition?
Possibly, if a new study of resting heart rates is taken too far.
According to a study published in JAMA Psychiatry, young men with the slowest resting heart rates were 49 percent more likely to become violent criminals than men with the fastest heart rates. The same men were 33 percent more likely to be convicted of a nonviolent crime such as a drug or traffic offense.
They were also 41 percent more likely to be injured in an assault and 31 percent more likely to be injured in a car accident.
"The associations were not explained by physical, cardiovascular, psychiatric, cognitive or socioeconomic factors," according to the authors of the study.
What's the connection then?
One theory is that slower hearts create lower levels of physiological arousal, which may cause the young man to do things that are dangerous or illegal. Another is that those with slower heart rates don't feel the fear that others would.
"Persons relatively lacking in fear may be more likely to place themselves in risky situations that place them in harm's way," wrote Adrian Raine of the University of Pennsylvania. "individuals who impulsively seek stimulation may similarly seek out high-stakes social contexts and make reckless decisions, placing them at risk of being assaulted.
If the connection between a low heart rate and science is confirmed, like most science, it would be a two-edged sword.
It could be part of the case presented by prosecutors to prove an individual was predisposed to commit a crime.
On the other hand, a violent criminal with a smart lawyer might be able to use it as a defense: "His heart rate made him do it."
Whatever the final verdict on the study and others like it, the debate over true justice is destined to continue for a long time.