The Land That Time Forgot? Planetary Health and the Criminal Justice System

Abstract

Planetary health is a transdisciplinary concept that erases the dividing lines between individual and community health, and the natural systems that support the wellbeing of humankind. Despite planetary health’s broad emphasis on justice, the promotion of science-based policies, and stated commitments to fairness, equity, and harm reduction, the criminal justice system has largely escaped scrutiny. This seems to be a major oversight, especially because the criminalization of mental illness is commonplace, and the system continues to be oriented around a prescientific compass of retribution and folk beliefs in willpower, moral fiber, and blameworthiness. Justice-involved juveniles and adults are funneled into landscapes of mass incarceration with ingrained prescientific assumptions. In non-criminal realms, such as obesity, there is a growing consensus that folk psychology ideas must be addressed at the root and branch. With this background, the Nova Institute for Health convened a transdisciplinary roundtable to explore the need for a ‘Copernican Revolution’ in the application of biopsychosocial sciences in law and criminal justice. This included discussions of scientific advances in neurobiology and omics technologies (e.g., the identification of metabolites and other biological molecules involved in behavior), the need for science education, ethical considerations, and the public health quarantine model of safety that abandons retribution.