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

Alan C. Logan (), Colleen M. Berryessa, John S. Callender, Gregg D. Caruso, Fiona A. Hagenbeek, Pragya Mishra and Susan L. Prescott
Additional contact information
Alan C. Logan: Nova Institute for Health, Baltimore, MD 21231, USA
Colleen M. Berryessa: School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ 07102, USA
John S. Callender: University of Aberdeen, Scotland AB24 3FX, UK
Gregg D. Caruso: School of Business, Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT 06824, USA
Fiona A. Hagenbeek: Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), HiLIFE, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland
Pragya Mishra: Department of Law, Allahabad University, Prayagraj 211002, India
Susan L. Prescott: Nova Institute for Health, Baltimore, MD 21231, USA

Challenges, 2025, vol. 16, issue 2, 1-27

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.

Keywords: justice; science education; public health quarantine; omics; retribution; contemplative practices; rehabilitation; free will; willpower; ethics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A00 C00 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/16/2/29/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/16/2/29/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jchals:v:16:y:2025:i:2:p:29-:d:1681721

Access Statistics for this article

Challenges is currently edited by Ms. Karen Sun

More articles in Challenges from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().