Can a Brain Scan Reclassify Murder? Neuroevidence and the Boundary between ʿAmd, Shibh al-ʿAmd, and Khaṭaʾ
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This study examined whether neuroevidence could alter the juridical classification of homicide in Islamic criminal law. It used a non-empirical qualitative design based on a focused narrative conceptual review of Islamic criminal-law scholarship on intentional homicide, quasi-intentional homicide, accidental killing, criminal intent, and responsibility, together with selected neurolaw and neuroscience literature on volition, executive control, and neurocognitive impairment. The analysis clarified the relevant concepts, compared the two literatures, and interpreted the juridical significance of neuroevidence. It found that intentional homicide, quasi-intentional homicide, and accidental killing did not form a neurological continuum and that executive-control impairment did not itself negate homicidal intent. Brain findings also remained separated from the offender's historical mental state by a substantial inferential gap. The study proposed a four-level model distinguishing capacity, intention, act classification, and penal consequence. It concluded that neuroevidence could contribute to reclassification only indirectly when tied to a doctrinally relevant proposition, while quasi-intentional homicide should not become a residual category for impaired control.
Article Details
Section
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Aharoni, E., Funk, C., Sinnott-Armstrong, W., & Gazzaniga, M. (2008). Can neurological evidence help courts assess criminal responsibility? Lessons from law and neuroscience. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1124, 145–160. https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1440.007
Al-Nasiri, S. A. H. (2026). The rulings of homicide and retribution (Qisas) in the Islamic penal system: A comparative jurisprudential study. Indian Journal of Information Sources and Services, 16(1), 711–725. https://doi.org/10.51983/ijiss-2026.16.1.74
Anderson, J. N. D. (1951). Homicide in Islamic law. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 13(4), 811–828. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00124061
Aron, A. R., Robbins, T. W., & Poldrack, R. A. (2014). Inhibition and the right inferior frontal cortex: One decade on. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18(4), 177–185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.12.003
Aspinwall, L. G., Brown, T. R., & Tabery, J. (2012). The double-edged sword: Does biomechanism increase or decrease judges’ sentencing of psychopaths? Science, 337(6096), 846–849. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1219569
Bufkin, J. L., & Luttrell, V. R. (2005). Neuroimaging studies of aggressive and violent behavior: Current findings and implications for criminology and criminal justice. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 6(2), 176–191. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838005275089
Darby, R. R., Horn, A., Cushman, F., & Fox, M. D. (2018). Lesion network localization of criminal behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(3), 601–606. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1706587115
Fabian, J. M. (2010). Neuropsychological and neurological correlates in violent and homicidal offenders: A legal and neuroscience perspective. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 15(3), 209–223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2009.12.004
Farahany, N. A. (2016). Neuroscience and behavioral genetics in US criminal law: An empirical analysis. Journal of Law and the Biosciences, 2(3), 485–509. https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsv059
Glenn, A. L., & Raine, A. (2014). Neurocriminology: Implications for the punishment, prediction and prevention of criminal behaviour. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 15(1), 54–63. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3640
Greene, E., & Cahill, B. S. (2012). Effects of neuroimaging evidence on mock juror decision making. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 30(3), 280–296. https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.1993
Greene, J., & Cohen, J. (2004). For the law, neuroscience changes nothing and everything. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 359(1451), 1775–1785. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2004.1546
Gurley, J. R., & Marcus, D. K. (2008). The effects of neuroimaging and brain injury on insanity defenses. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 26(1), 85–97. https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.797
Haggard, P. (2008). Human volition: Towards a neuroscience of will. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(12), 934–946. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2497
Jones, O. D., Marois, R., Farah, M. J., & Greely, H. T. (2013). Law and neuroscience. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(45), 17624–17630. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3254-13.2013
Kadir, Z. K. (2025). Memikirkan ulang konsep kesalahan: Tantangan gen MAOA terhadap pertanggungjawaban pidana. Jembatan Hukum: Kajian Ilmu Hukum, Sosial dan Administrasi Negara, 2(3), 179–193. https://doi.org/10.62383/jembatan.v2i3.2362
Kadir, Z. K. (2026a). Defining murder across legal traditions: Toward a transsystemic theory of intentional homicide. LEXARA: Journal of Law and Legal Studies, 1(1), 1–10.
Kadir, Z. K. (2026b). The social anatomy of homicide: Relationships, situations, and legal categories in Indonesia. SOCILEXIA: Journal of Social Sciences and Legal Studies, 1(1), 1–10.
Kadir, Z. K. (2026c). Uji klasifikasi yudisial dalam pembunuhan terhadap gender: Honor killing dan intimate partner femicide. RISOMA: Jurnal Riset Sosial Humaniora dan Pendidikan, 4(1), 313–326. https://doi.org/10.62383/risoma.v4i1.1506
Kadir, Z. K., & Mappaselleng, N. F. (2026). Neurocriminology and evidentiary standards in Indonesian courts. Priviet Social Sciences Journal, 6(1), 579–588. https://doi.org/10.55942/pssj.v6i1.786
Kadir, Z. K., Mappaselleng, N. F., & Kadir, N. K. (2025). Neurokriminologi dan transformasi doktrin hukum pidana. Rio Law Jurnal, 6(2), 1126–1140. https://doi.org/10.36355/rlj.v6i2.1879
Kamali, M. H. (2019). Just retaliation (Qiṣāṣ). In Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law: A Fresh Interpretation (pp. 201–212). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190910648.003.0015
Khalid, Z., Lee, R., & Wall, B. W. (2024). The use of neurobiological evidence in sentencing mitigation. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 42(2), 65–78. https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.2645
Kiehl, K. A. (2006). A cognitive neuroscience perspective on psychopathy: Evidence for paralimbic system dysfunction. Psychiatry Research, 142(2–3), 107–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2005.09.013
Logothetis, N. K. (2008). What we can do and what we cannot do with fMRI. Nature, 453(7197), 869–878. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06976
Maoz, U., & Yaffe, G. (2016). What does recent neuroscience tell us about criminal responsibility? Journal of Law and the Biosciences, 3(1), 120–139. https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsv051
Meynen, G. (2013). A neurolaw perspective on psychiatric assessments of criminal responsibility: Decision-making, mental disorder, and the brain. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 36(2), 93–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2013.01.001
Mobbs, D., Lau, H. C., Jones, O. D., & Frith, C. D. (2007). Law, responsibility, and the brain. PLoS Biology, 5(4), e103. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0050103
Moulin, V., Mouchet, C., Pillonel, T., Gkotsi, G.-M., Baertschi, B., Gasser, J., & Testé, B. (2018). Judges’ perceptions of expert reports: The effect of neuroscience evidence. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 61, 22–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2018.09.008
Perricone, A., Baskin-Sommers, A., & Ahn, W.-K. (2022). The effect of neuroscientific evidence on sentencing depends on how one conceives of reasons for incarceration. PLoS ONE, 17(11), e0276237. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276237
Peters, R. (2006). The classical doctrine. In Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law: Theory and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-First Century (pp. 6–68). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511610677.003
Poldrack, R. A. (2006). Can cognitive processes be inferred from neuroimaging data? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10(2), 59–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2005.12.004
Raine, A., Buchsbaum, M., & LaCasse, L. (1997). Brain abnormalities in murderers indicated by positron emission tomography. Biological Psychiatry, 42(6), 495–508. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3223(96)00362-9
Roache, R. (2014). Can brain scans prove criminals unaccountable? AJOB Neuroscience, 5(2), 35–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2014.884188
Romero-Martínez, Á., Sarrate-Costa, C., & Moya-Albiol, L. (2026). The analysis of the prefrontal cortex and its facilitator role of violence: Conclusions of a systematic review and meta-analysis based on neuroimaging results. Brain Imaging and Behavior, 20(2), 41. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-026-01105-1
Ropei, A. (2021). Kaidah niat dan penentuan kesengajaan pembunuhan dalam hukum Islam. Ahkam: Jurnal Hukum Islam, 9(1), 55–80. https://doi.org/10.21274/ahkam.2021.9.1.55-80
Roskies, A. (2006). Neuroscientific challenges to free will and responsibility. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10(9), 419–423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2006.07.011
Sapolsky, R. M. (2004). The frontal cortex and the criminal justice system. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 359(1451), 1787–1796. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2004.1547
Schweitzer, N. J., Saks, M. J., Murphy, E. R., Roskies, A. L., Sinnott-Armstrong, W., & Gaudet, L. M. (2011). Neuroimages as evidence in a mens rea defense: No impact. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 17(3), 357–393. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023581
Slobogin, C. (2017). Neuroscience nuance: Dissecting the relevance of neuroscience in adjudicating criminal culpability. Journal of Law and the Biosciences, 4(3), 577–593. https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsx033
Thomaidou, M. A., Berryessa, C. M., & Xie, S. S. (2025). A mixed-methods analysis of the influence of bio-behavioral scientific evidence on U.S. judges’ reasoning and sentencing decision-making. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 102, 102126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2025.102126
Wahlund, K., & Kristiansson, M. (2009). Aggression, psychopathy and brain imaging—Review and future recommendations. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 32(4), 266–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2009.04.007
Weisberg, D. S., Keil, F. C., Goodstein, J., Rawson, E., & Gray, J. R. (2008). The seductive allure of neuroscience explanations. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20(3), 470–477. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2008.20040
Yang, Y., & Raine, A. (2009). Prefrontal structural and functional brain imaging findings in antisocial, violent, and psychopathic individuals: A meta-analysis. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 174(2), 81–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pscychresns.2009.03.012