Beyond Binary Responsibility: A Framework for Biological Justice in the Epigenetic Era

Behavioural epigenetics is reshaping how the life course is understood: experiences of adversity, deprivation, stress, and care can leave durable molecular traces that correlate with health and behaviour yet remain compatible with human plasticity and change. This article develops a normative framework of biological justice for translating epigenetic evidence into legal reasoning without reintroducing biological determinism or naturalising structural inequality. We integrate scholarship in epigenetics, sociology of science, bioethics, and criminal law to (i) clarify what epigenetic findings can and cannot support in individualised legal decision-making, (ii) confront critical concerns about biologising inequality, predictive governance, and eugenic logics, and (iii) specify safeguards for defendant-protective, rehabilitation-oriented applications. The central legal issue is not whether epigenetic findings establish individual causal responsibility, but whether and under what conditions probabilistic biosocial evidence may be admitted under standards requiring contextual interpretation, structural framing, cultural humility, and democratic oversight. We map realistic near-term uses in sentencing mitigation, treatment planning, and upstream prevention, while identifying domains that warrant explicit prohibition, including predictive uses aimed at assessing future dangerousness or recidivism, and coercive intervention. The framework is cross-cultural by design, emphasising population diversity, community governance, and resource equity so that biological evidence does not become biological privilege.