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Abstract

This book presents the most comprehensive study to date of the major biological, psychological and environmental predictors of criminal behavior, particularly violence, through a detailed analysis of nearly 1000 low-income black youths from their birth to early adulthood. By examining over 150 variables spanning the lives of these youths, the study concludes that both biological and environmental factors produce strong, and independent, effects on delinquency and adult crime among males and females, who are distinguished from their controls. Powerful influences on violence include behavioral disorders during youth, low school achievement, parents with a low educational level, an absent father, hyperactivity, lead poisoning, left-handedness and mixed dominance, soft neurological signs, and neurological abnormalities. Case study comparisons between the most violent males and females and their controls show that criminals evidence a higher incidence of lead poisoning, disobedience, head injury, and a history of epileptic seizures among themselves or their immediate family members. Violent females are also more likely to have a family member who was incarcerated. The results do not confirm the findings of previous studies indicating direct relationships between violence and early intelligence, mental retardation, socioeconomic status, or early central nervous system dysfunction. The author concludes that both biological and environmental factors, in interaction, cause crime. For example, whereas some factors, such as hyperactivity, can be genetically transmitted across generations, causing a biological predisposition to criminal behavior, hyperactive people, as adults, can in turn, create instability in their families, making their children more prone to criminality, an environmental condition. The author concludes that most factors contributing to criminal and violent behavior can be prevented because they have environmental origins that can be eliminated.
Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1791678Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1791678Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1791678Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1791678
Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1791678Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1791678Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1791678Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1791678
Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1791678Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1791678Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1791678
... Some exceptions should be noted, however, in terms of studies that have failed to demonstrate associations between birth weight and criminality (Conseur, Rivara, Barnoski, & Emanuel, 1997) and gestational age and criminality (Moster, Lie, & Markestad, 2008;Conseur et al., 1997). Other work has demonstrated an association between small head circumference, a minor physical anomaly (Denno, 1990), in early childhood (age 1 year) and later violent criminal behavior among men (Ikäheimo et al., 2007). Studies prior to this also reported associations for small head circumference with later aggression (Waldrop, Bell, McLaughlin, & Halverson, 1978) and behavior problems (Halverson & Victor, 1976). ...
... These findings were evident for both men and women. Small head circumference has in the previous literature been referred to as a minor physical anomaly (Denno, 1990). From a biopsychosocial criminological perspective, minor physical anomalies have been viewed as reflecting physical and neural maldevelopment of the fetus during pregnancy, potentially due to both genetic and environmental influences (Raine, 2002b;Raine, 2019). ...
Article
Background We examined associations of adverse perinatal events with offspring violent and non-violent criminal convictions in men and women. Methods All singleton births between 1973 and 1995 (n = 1,146,570 men, n = 1,085,217 women) were identified through Swedish population-based registers. Information about adverse perinatal events was retrieved from the Medical Birth Register. Outcomes were criminal convictions collected from the National Crime Register. We estimated absolute and relative risks of being convicted of criminal convictions using the Kaplan-Meier method and survival analyses for men and women separately. We also tested for differences in magnitudes of associations for men versus women. Results Several adverse perinatal events were associated with an increased risk of violent and non-violent criminal convictions in both men and women. Associations between low birth weight, smallness relative to gestational age and preterm birth with non-violent criminal convictions were statistically significantly higher for men than for women. There was a dose-dependent association between adverse perinatal events with violent and non-violent criminal convictions for both men and women, indicated by the strengthened magnitude of HR estimates with exposure to an increasing number of adverse perinatal events. Conclusions Adverse perinatal events are associated with violent and non-violent criminal convictions in men and women, with some differences in risk estimates between sexes. Findings are compatible with theoretical accounts implicating disruption of the neurodevelopment during the perinatal period.
... If delinquency leads to lower IQ then there should be no prospective differences between delinquents-to-be and non-delinquents-to-be. However, prospective studies of juvenile delinquents indicate that lower delinquent IQ scores are present well before the initiation of delinquent activities (Denno, 1990;Moffitt et al., 1981;West & Farrington, 1973). The delinquent life-style interpretation is rendered implausible in the present study because we examined the relation between IQ and early-onset delinquency in a sample of 12-and 13-year-old boys who have yet to be involved in lengthy careers of violence and drug abuse. ...
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An inverse relation between IQ and delinquency has been well established, but the direction of effect remains to be specified. Differing explanatory accounts of the relation were empirically examined in the present study using data on 13-year-old boys involved in a high-risk longitudinal study. Accounts that interpreted the relation as spurious or that posited that delinquency-related factors lead to low IQ scores received no support; findings were most consistent with the hypothesis that the direction of effect runs from low IQ to delinquency. The IQ–delinquency relation was robust after race, class, and observed test motivation were controlled statistically. Additionally, the effect of IQ was mediated by school performance for Black youth but not for White youth.
... Of particular concern is the mobilization of lead stored in bones (a major target tissue for lead storage) during physiological and pathological conditions and events, such as pregnancy, lactation, osteoporosis and renal disease [16,17]. Furthermore, there is a documented relationship between childhood lead exposure and the emergence of aggressive behavior and early juvenile delinquency and subsequent adult criminality in later life [18,19]. ...
Article
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Environmental pollution is a major cause of global diseases, death and disability, with a toll greater than that caused by communicable diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, combined [...]
... Naicker et al. (2012) observed an association between destructive behavior and lead exposure in 1041 South African boys and girls at age 13 years with adjustment for a socioeconomic index. Denno (1990) noted that previous exposure to lead predicted juvenile delinquency and adult criminality in a survey of 987 African-American males from Philadelphia. This data, collected between birth and 22 years of age from the Collaborative Perinatal project, considered over 100 predictors of violent and chronic delinquent behavior. ...
Article
Childhood lead exposure interferes with brain maturation, which adversely impacts cognitive and behavioral development. Lower intelligence scores, impairments in decision making, and increased rates of delinquent and criminal behavior are adverse outcomes linked to childhood lead absorption. The present study examined the relationships between childhood blood lead concentrations, structural brain volume, and measures of adult criminality. We hypothesized that increased rates of criminal arrests in adulthood would be inversely correlated with regional gray and white matter volumes, especially prefrontal areas responsible for decision making and self-control. We obtained childhood blood lead histories and anatomical magnetic resonance imaging from a subset of the longitudinally followed birth cohort known as the Cincinnati Lead Study. Criminality data for cohort participants were extracted from public databases. Voxel based morphometry was used to examine spatial differences in regional gray and white matter volumes associated with childhood blood lead concentrations and measures of adult criminality, respectively. Conjunction analyses allowed for the exploratory evaluation of common regions of volume change. Childhood blood lead concentrations were inversely associated with gray and white matter volume in the frontal, parietal and temporal lobes. Gray matter volumes were also inversely associated with criminal arrests with key regions within the cingulate, precuneus, several frontal gyri and the supplementary motor area. Conjunction analyses identified regions in the anterior cingulate, frontal gray matter and supplementary motor area associated with childhood lead absorption and criminality. The results from this study suggest that reduced brain volumes in regions responsible for cognition and emotional regulation are associated with childhood lead exposure and criminal arrests.
... There is evidence from studies on teen substance use that parental attitudes predict antisocial behaviors among adolescents, Evidence also suggests that residential mobility is a predictor of However, further research is needed to assess the independent contribution of residential mobility to violent behavior. There is also evidence that disruptions of the parent-child relationship (separation from parents and leaving home at an early age) are predictive of later violent behavior in children and adolescents (Denno, 2007). ...
Thesis
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Adolescents are important and sensitive groups in any society since they pose a transitional stage between representing childhood and adulthood, and the accompanying physiological, hormonal, physical and emotional changes, as well as the future men and community leaders. Every behavior has a set of motives and factors that justify underlying causes that explain the adoption of the specific behavior, and the phenomenon of violence and aggression among adolescents, which have their causes and motives, and we must clearly define them to reach fundamental solutions, and there is no doubt that we will be in a state of confusion if we do not really know the reasons that drive us and direct us, and who Here it was worth us to avoid the hasty provisions of the phenomenon of violence and aggression experienced by the teenager. Violence and aggression is a complex phenomenon, complex in structure, and cannot be explained by only one variable or factor, for there is certainly a set of factors that interact, overlap, interconnect, and affect each other negatively or positively with one another to detonate actions characterized by violence and aggressive behavior. The current study aims to assess the level of violence and aggression among adolescents, through a questionnaire distributed to adolescents (Self Report), as well as to identify the factors accompanied the state of violence and aggression among them, and to know the relationship between them in addition to the relationship with demographic data. Where the sample has been collected in two phases: The first stage has been selected for secondary schools by a way of (simple random sample), and 41 schools have been chosen from three sectors that have included the whole province, city and countryside, namely (Najaf sector, Kufa sector and Al Manathira sector). The second stage is a selection method (accidental sample) through which (1606) teenagers and both sexes have been chosen from those schools. The results have showed that adolescents had a low level of violence and the aggression was at a moderate level. Some of the factors associated with violence (parents ’problems, family members’ problems, academic level, video games, and movies) had an effect on violence and at a moderate level. As for the factors associated with the aggression, all affected the teenager and the level of multiple aggression. In light of these results, the study recommends supporting educational methods that limit violent and aggressive behavior, such as (moving away from scenes of an aggressive nature, beating, violence, fighting, quarrels, and blood scenes). Dedicating few minutes within lectures to clarify the disadvantages and harms of violence and aggression, show the benefits of tolerance and contentment among members of society, learn about the causes of adolescent violence and aggression alongside the cooperation of the school administration with parents, and create posters that reject violence and aggression and suspend it throughout the school, and also, focus on the occasion (violence Against Children) on November 19 and because of its important role in spreading awareness against violence. Finally, training in communication skills, social methods, emotional control, as well as interest in sports activities.
... The word purpose is essential; bodily or mentally harm that happens inadvertently, in the deficit of purpose, is not violence. Violence does not merely "appear" in the healthy grownups; it is an adult ethological disorder that is advanced by distressed manners during childhood (Denno , 1990, p. 85). Cassel (1982 mentions in a scrutiny of the quality of suffering that it achieves its peak what it threatens to liquefy the individual's honesty. ...
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This research provides a psychological review of Stephen King's Misery and The Dark Half based on Slavoj Zizek's ideas of violence and its veiled dimensions. In this investigation, the issue of encountering violence promptly and abominating all kinds of violence in the actions of human beings as well as commiserating with victims have been scrutinized. There are diversified critical assumptions to the statement of what psychology is considerably worth applying to the works of Stephen King who has gained achievements as a gothic author and who has paid attention to unconscious gothic components and psychotic characters. It can be argued that these two novels reveal the doctrine of violence which is the result of dualism and failure in attaining interior desires as explained in Slavoj Zizek's conceptions: subjective and objective violence (symbolic and systematic violence). For the reason that Stephen King is referred to as a gothic novelist, this research will concentrate on the leading characters' psyches in two of his most thrilling novels to determine if the author's ideas keep in line with the definition of psyche and unconscious are effective in the representation of violence, trepidation, affliction, torment and madness and of the protagonists in Stephen King's Misery and The Dark Half. As a theorist and a philosopher, Zizek emphasizes on the doctrine of violence and its effects on changing the mood and on carrying out frenetic activities. Consequently, it is being explored that unfulfilled intrinsic and intellectual desires in the real world and truly the potential uncertainties of mental demands and the unfulfillment of these desires in the real world, novel's characters as well as individuals can cause violence in the society.
... ¿Somos de naturaleza gentil y altruista o somos seres violentos, sutilmente civilizados por nuestra cultura? (Denno, 1990). El dilema de cómo afrontar el tema de la violencia es si ésta debe considerarse una herramienta social de control o como una desviación de la sociedad (Lenclud, Claverie & Jamin, 1984). ...
Chapter
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Entre tradiciones y modernidad, búsquedas y encuentros, desplazamientos y permanencias, avances y retrocesos, deterioros y aciertos y desde diversos horizontes y enfoques, Mujeres, Derechos y Políticas Públicas en América y en el Caribe, enseña realidades sociales no siempre visibles o voluntariamente ocultas. En esta obra pertinente y original, especialistas iberoamericanos y europeos, apoyándose en la historia, muestran mecanismos para que el ser mujer en el siglo veintiuno deje de suponer riesgo y opresión, significando la necesidad absoluta ya no de maldecir, sino de actuar por un mundo más justo y equitativo.
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There is an emergency to inform people about the biotechnological revolution and its multidirectional consequences in every day's life. Bioethical issues should be methodically analysed, since the definition of the term depends upon the educational background and the speciality of each scientist involved. An increasing international awareness is gradually expressed by the various bodies, (political authorities, educational Institutions etc), materialized through a series of declarations and legislative regulations or by establishing various assemblies responsible for bioethical issues. However the economic dimension interfering in the field causes a strong pressure for acceleration of the relevant research and its applications. Thus, the role of the assemblies is deteriorated mainly to consultative recommendations hardly efficient for the acceptance of protective for the consumers countermeasures. The mean citizen is unprotected against the consequences concerning him and his environment. Therefore there is a demand for stregthening the educational initiatives addresed either to the students of particular disciplines or to the wide public which will hopefully increase the level of the respective knowledge.
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