If... We Could Stop The Violence
Source: BBC, WEDNESDAY, 22 DECEMBER,
2004
While the connection between crime and poverty is well known, links between
violence and biological make-up are still being explored. Could - and should - people's physiological predisposition to violent
behaviour ever be managed by the state?
Here
are just some facts surrounding the issues of crime, violence and biological predisposition:
· More than
one million violent crimes (violence against the person, sexual offences and robberies) were recorded in 2003/04 - a 12% increase
on the previous year.
(Source: Home Office statistical bulletin - "Crime in England and Wales 2003-2004")
· 10% of all
offenders are responsible for over half of all crime. They account for at least 50% of serious convictions.
(Source: Home Office research - Annex B of Criminal Justice:
the way forward Cm 5074, 2001)
· Experts have
linked violent behaviour to environmental factors during childhood. Research shows that poor living conditions in economically
deprived areas and poor parenting of young children increase the risk of violent behaviour in adulthood.
(Source: Youth Justice Board research - "Risk and protective factors associated with
youth crime and effective interventions to prevent it", November 2001)
· 70,000 children
in the UK are receiving medication for ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).
(Source: Meidplus UK Data, April
2003)
· However,
it is believed there are many more undiagnosed children - it is estimated as many as 5% of school age children have ADHD and
100,000 children need treatment.
(Source: National Institute for Clinical Excellence - Technology Appraisal Guidance no.
13, October 2000)
· 23% of all
crime has been attributed to poor or non-existent diagnosis of ADHD in children in care homes.
(Source: Dale C and Storey
L, Nursing Praxis-Care and Treatment of Offenders with a Learning Disability)
· Court records
suggest that ADHD youths are four to five times more likely to be arrested and to have multiple arrests and convictions.
(Sources: Weiss, G., & Hechtman, L., (1986). Hyperactive
children grown up. New York, N.Y.: The Guilford Press; Lambert, N. M. (1988). Adolescent outcomes for hyperactive children.
American Psychologist, 43, 786-799; Mannuzza, S., Klein, R.G., Konig, P.H. and Giampino, T.L. (1989) Hyperactive boys almost
grown up: IV. Criminality and its relationship to psychiatric status, Archives of General Psychiatry, 46, 1073-1079; Satterfield,
J.H., Hoppe, C.M. and Schell, A.M., (1982) A prospective study of delinquency in 110 adolescent boys with attention deficit
disorder and 88 normal adolescent boys, American Journal of Psychiatry, 139 (6), 795-798; Satterfield, T., Swanson, J., Schell,
A., Lee, F. (1994) Prediction of anti-social behaviour in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder boys from aggression/defiance
scores)
· Studies using
brain imaging (positron emission topography or PET) have shown that a group of murderers had poor functioning of the prefrontal
cortex part of the brain - the area believed to control and regulate aggressive behaviour. Some scientists believe therefore
that a person with a damaged or poor functioning prefrontal cortex has a tendency to be violent.
(Source: Brain abnormalities in murderers indicated by positron
emission tomography. Raine A, Buchsbaum M, LaCasse L. Biol Psychiatry. September 1997,15;42(6):495-508)
· Earlier studies
had already shown that damage to the brain caused by birth complications have both been linked to violent behaviour.
(Source: Kandel, E., and Mednick, S.A. 1991. Perinatal complications
predict violent offending. Criminology 29(3):519-529.)
· A 2003 study
in Mauritius using brain scans (magnetic resonance imaging or MRI) showed that brain activity could be boosted by an enriched
lifestyle (better diet and exercise) in the early years of life, helping to prevent violent behaviour. By 23 years old, subjects
were 64% less likely to have criminal records than those who did not have the enriched lifestyle.
(Source: Effects of Environmental Enrichment at Ages 3-5
Years on Schizotypal Personality and Antisocial Behavior at Ages 17 and 23 Years. Am J Psychiatry 2003 160: 1627-1635)
· A study of
a Dutch family in 1993 was the first to suggest the link between a genetic defect and extreme aggression. Several generations
of men in the family had committed violent crimes. The research found that these men all had a genetic mutation that caused
low levels of an enzyme called MAO-A.
(Source: Abnormal behavior associated with a point mutation in the structural gene
for monoamine oxidase A. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Vol 262 (5133) 22 October 1993 pp 578-580)
· However,
biological factors alone do not necessarily indicate a predisposition to violence. A study of abused boys in New Zealand found
that abused children were more likely to grow up to show anti-social behaviour if they had low levels of MAO-A.
(Source: Caspi et al., Science, vol. 297, p851 Caspi, A. Moffitt,
T.E. et al. 2002. Role
of genotype in the cycle of violence in maltreated children. Science 297(Aug. 2):851-854)
· In 1991, a 64-year-old man was tried for murder. Brain scans
showed that he had a cyst pressing on the prefrontal cortex part of the brain and his defence team planned to use this as
part of his defence (although the case was never presented after the plea was changed).
(Source: The Legal Admissibility
of Positron Emission Tomography Scans in Criminal Cases: People v. Spyder Cystkopf. Weiss Z. Semin Clin Neuropsychiatry. 1996
Jul;1(3):202-210)
Connections between crime and biological make-up are increasingly becoming a hot topic for discussion.
Two personal and opposing accounts argue the case for and against.
Adrian Raine, Professor of Psychology, University of Southern California,
sets out his view:
Unlocking crime: the biological key
Until recently it was thought that the causes of crime lay just in social factors like poverty
and unemployment. Yet repeat offending criminal behaviour is a clinical disorder, with brain impairments playing a key role.
New research is now showing that genetic and biological factors play an equal, if not greater, role than social factors in
crime causation.
Within this new field of biocriminology, brain imaging findings are revealing dramatic new insights
into the criminal mind. There are now 71 brain imaging studies showing that murderers, psychopaths, and individuals with aggressive,
antisocial personalities have poorer functioning in the prefrontal cortex - that part of the brain involved in regulating
and controlling emotion and behaviour. More dramatically, we now know that the brains of criminals are physically different
from non-criminals, showing an 11% reduction in the volume of grey matter (neurons) in the prefrontal cortex.
'Bad brains'
Violent offenders just do not have the emergency brakes to stop their runaway aggressive behaviour.
Literally speaking, bad brains lead to bad behaviour.
Dramatic advances are also being made in the areas of molecular and behaviour genetics. Over 100
twin and adoption studies have convincingly shown that genetic processes account for 50% of antisocial and criminal behaviour.
Of the remaining half that is environmental, biology accounts for part of this. For example, physical
child abuse can cause brain damage that in turn results in antisocial, aggressive behaviour.
Genetic processes are also at play in shaping aggressive behaviour in children. There is exciting
new evidence that an abnormality in one specific gene (monoamine oxidase A), when combined with child abuse, predisposes to
violent offending in adulthood. In a similar fashion, birth complications, when combined with maternal rejection in the first
year of life, results in higher violence at age 34.
Breakthroughs
The biological and genetic findings are now incontrovertible; the evidence is too strong to ignore.
These new breakthroughs have important implications for crime prevention.
One of the reasons why we have repeatedly failed to stop crime is because we have systematically
ignored the biological and genetic contributions to crime causation. We instead need to focus efforts on new interventions
that will improve brain structure and function.
New research has just shown that childhood malnutrition is linked to poor brain functioning (low
IQ) and conduct disorder in early adulthood. Giving three-year-olds better nutrition (and more physical exercise) for just
two years results in better brain functioning (EEG) at age 11, and a 35% reduction in crime 20 years later at age 23.
Prisoners given fish oil (rich in omega-3, a long-chain fatty acid that is critical for brain structure
and function) show reduced aggressive and antisocial behaviour.
Low physiological arousal (e.g. low sweat and heart rates) is a well-replicated risk factor for
crime and violence, but stimulants (drugs which increase arousal) are effective in reducing aggressive and antisocial behaviour
in children.
Future
Where will this new biological approach take us? If we really want to stop crime, the best investment
society can make is to intervene very early on. Better prenatal and perinatal health care, better nutrition early in life,
and medication for severely aggressive children can be implemented right now.
The next decade will reveal new discoveries regarding specific genes that cause violent behaviour,
and these findings could result in new drugs to correct the neurotransmitter brain abnormalities that cause violence.
In 50 years time, will we be conducting reparative brain surgery on prisoners to correct the faulty
neural circuits that give rise to violence?
Rocket science perhaps - but there is an uncanny habit for today's science fiction to become tomorrow's
reality.
Steven Rose, Professor of Biology, Open University,
sets out his views:
Violence not detectable by brain
imaging
There is a revealing moment in the IF drama in which the "lecturer" addressing his class of bored
students shows a picture of the Jarrow hunger march in the 1930s. If poverty is the cause of violence, he asks, why was there
relatively little of it then, but so much more today? He concludes the cause must be located in the brain and in the genes.
It is true that there has been an increase in violent crime since the 1960s, and an even greater
increase, fostered by the tabloid press and the government, in the fear of crime. However, what any alert student would quickly
have pointed out to the lecturer is as there cannot have been time since the 1930s for genetic change to occur, as it requires
hundreds of generations. Since our brains remain the same now as they were then, the genetic argument cannot be right either.
And of course as a child gets half its genes from its father and half from its mother, the refrain in the programme of "like
father like son" is a crass genetic error.
If Liam has ADHD (if that were a sensible diagnosis, which many child psychologists would doubt),
and if ADHD were a genetic condition (for which there is no strong evidence), then it would be as likely to be inherited from
his mother as his father.
External factors
If there is more violent crime today we have to look for other reasons than inside peoples' brains.
Guns and drugs other than alcohol and nicotine are more available, there is a growing gap between rich and poor, and life
in sink estates, perhaps especially for young men, offers little hope.
But despite all this, one might argue that maybe there is something different about the brains
or the genes of someone prepared to be violent, and that a genetic test or a brain imaging, as in the programme, might reveal
it. This is only true up to a point.
There is some evidence that children with a particular genetic mutation, if brought up in an abusive
environment, are more likely to be violent or abusive in turn when they become adult. But the crucial factor is the interaction
between gene (which is rare) and environment (which is common), so if we want to do something about it we should try to prevent
any child, with or without any particular gene, from being abused.
'Beware'
There is also some evidence that some people diagnosed as psychopathic may show particular brain
abnormalities. But many people so diagnosed do not show such abnormalities, and many people who are behaviourally not violent
do show them. So the predictive power of such a brain scan is pretty much zero.
Furthermore of course, people are violent for many different reasons, almost none of which are
detectable by brain imaging. I doubt if you would be able to explain the reasons why they have been responsible for some 100,000
deaths in Iraq by doing brain scans on Tony Blair or George W Bush, to take an extreme example.
Nor would the violence of someone addicted to crack cocaine and desperate for a fix be attributable
to some genetic or neural predisposition.
The truth is that neuroscience and genetics can say little about the causes or the treatment of
violence in our society and cannot offer cheap fixes.
Beware forensic psychologists who say anything different, however glib they may sound.
They are selling snake oil.
