People who never learned to self regulate properly cannot, formally, as a matter of neurophysiology, be expected to exercise willpower in an organized way over a long period of time. It comes in fits and spurts, never sustained.
In important respects, the moral underpinning of our legal system assumes that, absent gross psychosis, people can choose their behavior. Given this, if they choose wrong, they deserve punishment, and this negative reinforcement can be expected to move them in the direction of making better decisions in the future.
But if a person cannot really make decisions, if behaviors more or less “appear” to them, as happens in the case of severe dysregulation as brought about by developmental trauma, they will be back in jail, their own feelings about it in more sober moments notwithstanding.
Socially, and practically, fear of jail probably does keep people from committing crimes they may otherwise commit. This is a useful function. But in a healthy society, such fear should be vastly inferior as a motive to the desire to do good, to belong, and to the capacity to foresee the consequences of specific behaviors on others, and to adjust behavior accordingly.
I am going to go there: I think all convicted criminals should have qEEG’s, and be taught self regulation in jail through neurofeedback and as needed talk and group therapy. This would be intelligent social policy, and in the long run, by reducing criminality, make the lives of everyone better. Safer neighborhoods, happier people, less money spent on jails and enforcement: all positive.
It is easy to judge people who do things we would never do. This is understandable. We, rightly, view them as another species of human being. In some respects they are. But placed in the same circumstances from the moment of being conceived–perhaps in a hostile womb–and up to that moment, most of us would be acting the same. And if we didn’t, it would be luck or grace or both.
God knows I am judgmental in some ways. I don’t think anyone who is not healthier than I am ever gets away with it, even if they learn to lie about it–for example by judging people as hateful without evidence, then acting accordingly–but it is likely possible over time to let things and people roll without getting overly involved emotionally.
But I firmly believe old codes of morality need to be revised to incorporate new understandings of how we are put together.