But on the inside, research finds that they may share some traits.Heres a look at some of the biological risk factors psychologists and others have linked to violence and the interventions theyre testing to reduce that risk.Among the research that points to this link is a neuroimaging study led by Dustin Pardini, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh.
![]() Adrian Raine, DPhil, of the department of criminology at the University of Pennsylvania, led a study with Yu Gao, PhD, at CUNY-Brooklyn that examined fear conditioning, which is dependent on amygdala function, in a group of 1,795 3-year-olds. The researchers put electrodes on the childrens fingers while repeatedly playing two tones: one that was followed by a loud, unpleasant sound and another that was played alone. Subsequently, the difference in sweat responses to each tone by itself yielded a measure of each toddlers fear conditioning. Twenty years later, the team identified participants who had gone on to commit crimes and compared them with noncriminal counterparts, matching them on gender, ethnicity and social adversity. They found that those children who went on to commit crimes had simply failed to demonstrate fear conditioning, Raine says. In other words, they were fearless when most of us would be fearful. This finding suggests that deficits in the amygdala, which are indirectly identifiable as early as age 3, predispose to crime at age 23 ( The American Journal of Psychiatry, 2010). Psychologist Kent Kiehl, PhD, and colleagues at the University of New Mexico used fMRI to look at the brains of nearly 100 adult male inmates while they completed a cognitive task involving inhibitory control. They found that prisoners with lower ACC activity were twice as likely to reoffend four years after they left prison than prisoners with higher ACC activity ( PNAS, 2013). While such studies need replication and extension, Raine says, they are proof of the concept that there may be added value with bringing on board neurobiological information, including brain imaging information, for future prediction of violence. ![]() In one preliminary study, prisoners assigned to a 10-week yoga class improved their impulse control ( Journal of Psychiatric Research, 2013). How Does The Mind Work Trial Of BritishIn an earlier randomized-controlled trial of British prisoners, those who received vitamin, mineral and essential fatty acid supplements committed an average of 26.3 percent fewer offenses than those who had received the placebo. They also showed a reduction in offenses of more than 35 percent, while the placebo-taking prisoners records remained stable ( British Journal of Psychiatry, 2002). A study in the Netherlands replicated the effect, and now Raine is testing a similar intervention for children. We can change the biological roots of crime and violence theres no question about it.
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