“My Culture Made Me Do It”

Do human beings possess free will? Or are they the puppets of their neurology, their DNA, their upbringing, their culture, or their physical environs? When a social scientist appears in court claiming that a defendant’s assertion that “my culture made me do it,” what theory of free will does the expert employ, whether explicitly or by implication? By addressing a series of concrete cases and the experiences of a range of social scientists who have appeared in such proceedings, it is suggested that (a) few of the experts have directly addressed this crucial question, but (b) most apparently believe that asking people to go against the norms of their culture is to ask them to risk paying a very high price of exclusion, insecurity, and orderliness. Yet the question remains whether experts can claim legitimacy in their interpretation of the relation of cultural background to personal behavior if they do not think through more carefully their position on the problem of free will.