A scientist says he can scan prisoners' brains for signs of evil

Well that took a wild, albeit unsurprising turn at the end (bringing in race). Though I do still wonder if there ends up being actual material improvements on brain scans being behavior predictors or if it truly stays in science fiction (probably science fiction). Very evocative of the anime Psycho Pass.

> Psycho-Pass is set in a futuristic Japan governed by the Sibyl System, a powerful biomechatronic computer network which continually monitors the psychological traits of Japanese citizens using a "cymatic scan." The resulting psychometric assessment is called a Psycho-Pass, which includes a numeric Crime Coefficient index, revealing the citizen's criminality potential, and a color-coded Hue, alerting law enforcement to other data... When a targeted individual's Crime Coefficient index exceeds the accepted threshold (100), they are pursued, apprehended, and either arrested or killed by the field officers of the Crime Investigation Department of the Ministry of Welfare's Public Safety Bureau.

> Defense attorneys, in particular, used biological evidence like brain scans to argue that their clients should receive lighter sentences.

Counterintuitively people want negative traits be rooted in biology. That the soul is a victim of the faulty flesh, instead of lacking willpower or being responsible for ones actions.

The article really doesn't hold back: one of the subheadings is "Picking up where phrenology left off".

Yesssss. And now to extract the evil, concentrate it and reinstall it at will!

Muahahahaha!!!

"Did you take that test yourself?"