Recent decades have seen an increased interest in the neuroscientific understanding of aggressive, criminal and antisocial behaviours.1–4 Likewise, neuroscientific evidence has been increasingly introduced in criminal trials to explain criminal and mentally disordered behaviour. Four very recent studies that were performed in Canada, England and Wales, the Netherlands and the United States demonstrate that introducing neurobiological explanations of criminal behaviour into courtrooms seems to be on the rise in different legal systems.5–8 It is therefore important to address how such evidence shapes criminal cases and legal decisions.