Pedophiles. Most likely the most despised of all types of criminals as their crimes are perpetrated against the truly innocent, children. Could they ever be forgiven once lines were crossed, trusted again within a community?

I am fairly certain at some point in the not too distant future, a technological solution will be able to restrict a whole range of behaviors by targeting certain structures of the brain. The more research performed, the more they are finding that the physical structure of the brain is responsible for a whole host of behaviors. In other words, the way they were born. This opens a strange can of worms in punishing a range of criminal behaviors that are judged as free choice and controllable.

What if they are not controllable by a particular person? Can one punish an epileptic for having a seizure, a diabetic for an inability to produce insulin?  

But, what if a technological solution was found, something that could ensure a behavior could never happen again, not even an urge to repress, can they be allowed to walk free unpunished?<div class="pull-right">http://i.imgur.com/FIT87Dt.jpg</div>

The problem likely is that it can only be done after a crime has been committed or voluntarily before. The reason is that the structure of the brain is likely not the only variable and many may have the same structure but not present with a certain tendency. 

The issue with playing around in the brain pre-crime is that the effects that it will have post procedure are unknown as slight changes can have large ramifications. Suppressing a chance of something happening may make the possibility of something else happening much higher. This is a part of the vaccination problem where for many, there is no harm done but for a few, a lot of harm.

A mental vaccination of behavior opens up a whole range of complexities that are likely unknown to us. Perhaps some would present positively in some and very negatively in others. This means that there must potentially be victims of the criminal before the criminal can be treated to stop further criminality. How, would a victim feel to see a person that has committed crimes against them walking free even though they know they will never commit a similar crime again?

How will a person feel after treatment if their mental structure essentially forced them into a behavior? It is likely its own cruel and unusual punishment to face the facts of a terrible past in which one committed heinous crimes yet had no control over them. 'It was me, but not me, I do not understand how I could ever, but I know I did.'

What are the moral implications of treating criminals in such a way? Is it more ethical than a jail? Yes. Is it fair on the victims? This gets quite complex as the emotional impact of a horrible experience upon a victim can fundamentally change a life course also yet they must likely live with that past also and they are absolutely innocent in the crime.

The future is fast becoming a moral minefield where we are going to have to re-evaluate the way in which we approach a whole range of human questions and behaviors as new information and technology alter our view and our range of possible courses of action. 

Not all are going to be negative changes of course but ignoring the possible negative implications increases the risk of missing fundamental flaws exponentially, not to mention all of the complexity issues in the details. It is all going to get very interesting, very fast in human timeline terms.

Taraz
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