Commentary: forensic psychiatry--can its pursuit of the truth be color-blind?

Dr. Hicks has made an important contribution to forensic psychiatry in an area of scholarly and clinical endeavor where discourse among psychiatry, culture, and the law must ultimately converge. His article ranks as one of most comprehensive statements published thus far in this area in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law or its predecessor, the Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. This article should prove a valuable introduction to those interested in acquiring an understanding of our current state of knowledge regarding the intersection of culture, psychiatry, and the law. But most important, the article introduces a number of areas of fundamental importance, both theoretical and practical, in the emerging field of cultural forensic psychiatry. The article deals with three important areas about which I intend to provide further discussion and clarification. With regard to genetics and race, Dr. Hicks states, “Genetic studies have called into question the validity of the concept of race. The average genetic variation between individuals of the same race is as great as any genetic variation between racial groups” and concludes, “In light of such evidence, it would be unwise to presume much about an individual’s genetic make-up based on racial appearance.” However, the impact of recent genetic research on our understanding of race is considerably more complex than the article suggests. Although it is likely that factors associated with physical appearance linked to race would involve a small set of genes, there is indeed a controversy among experts regarding the impact that information originating from the human genome project and related enterprises may have on future biomedical research and clinical practice with relation to race, ethnicity, and culture. Gonzalez Burchard and his colleagues highlight one aspect of this controversy when they state: