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Early prevention of antisocial behavior (ASB): A comparative ethical analysis of psychosocial and biomedical approaches

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Abstract

Scientific research regarding juvenile delinquency increasingly emphasizes the importance of early identification of at-risk children and early preventive interventions. Recent developments in the life sciences give a special boost to this development. The corresponding ethical discussion, however, seems to be characterized by a remarkable discrepancy. Life science approaches toward antisocial behavior (ASB) are frequently confronted by controversial discussions as to their ethical, social and legal implications. By contrast, ethics hardly takes notice of currently existing early ASB prevention practices that largely result from social sciences. This article investigates whether biomedical approaches are indeed ethically more problematic or whether instead this gap in the ethical debate manifests undue “bio-exceptionalism”. To this end, existing ASB prevention practices and potential biomedically informed future developments are presented and discussed. A series of potential drawbacks, as highlighted in bioethics, are reviewed; and whether, when and how far these might also apply to established psychosocial practices will be explored. We conclude that negative ethical implications might result from all kinds of early screening and prevention practices irrespective of their disciplinary origin. Therefore, it is a moral imperative to include not only future biomedical developments in ethical research, but to critically investigate current psychosocial practices as well.

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Notes

  1. It is always difficult to demonstrate the non-existence of a debate. However, we consider our impression to be supported by two indications. First, with the exceptions mentioned, we could not find any literature as to the ethical implications of psychosocial approaches to early ASB prevention. Second, in a series of (hitherto unpublished) interviews in the past years with both researchers and professionals working in the areas of (forensic) child psychiatry, developmental psychology, educational science and (forensic) youth care, the lack of corresponding ethical discussions was noticed and their necessity was often underscored.

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Acknowledgements

We are very thankful to the memory of Ron Berghmans. He has not only substantially contributed to this article, but has also been an important source of inspiration for many of the debates we had on this and many other topics. Ron passed away in March 2013 and with him we lost a fine colleague and dear friend.

Work for this article has been supported by a grant from the Centre for Society and the Life Sciences CSG, Nijmegen, The Netherlands No 70.1.061a, funded by the Netherlands Genomics Initiative.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health, CAPHRI, Ethics and Society, Maastricht University, Postbox 616, Maastricht, 6200 MD, The Netherlands

    Dorothee Horstkötter, Ron Berghmans & Guido de Wert

  2. Centre for Society and the Life Sciences CSG, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Dorothee Horstkötter, Ron Berghmans & Guido de Wert

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  1. Dorothee Horstkötter
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  2. Ron Berghmans
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  3. Guido de Wert
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Correspondence to Dorothee Horstkötter.

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Horstkötter, D., Berghmans, R. & de Wert, G. Early prevention of antisocial behavior (ASB): A comparative ethical analysis of psychosocial and biomedical approaches. BioSocieties 9, 60–83 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/biosoc.2013.36

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/biosoc.2013.36

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