A recent study conducted by UK researchers, states that brain injuries in childhood could lead children to become criminals when young.
A UK study found a direct link been childhood brain injuries and crime committed by youngsters. According to the study conducted by researchers from the Centre for Clinical Neuropsychology Research, University of Exeter, brain injuries like trauma that effect a maturing brain can lead to the disruption of "the development of self-restraint, social judgment and impulse control."
The report containing the finishing was released online on Oct. 9, under commission from the Barrow Cadbury Trust. The study included a survey of 200 adult male prisoners in Britain which recorded their level of brain injuries in them. It was found that the level of brain injuries in these criminals were much higher that other people.
"The young brain, being a work in progress, is prone to "risk taking". And so it is more vulnerable to getting injured in the first place, and suffering subtle to more severe problems in attention, concentration and managing one's mood and behavior," Professor Williams was quoted as saying by Mail Online. "It appears, therefore, that the brain system related to rewards (the meso-limbic area) is developing rapidly relative to the other systems. Especially, it seems, compared to the frontal system that is supposed to regulate it, and the social and emotional systems that will, in time, moderate it."
William also reported that brain injuries are rarely looked into while assessing a criminal.
"Yet brain injury has been shown to be a condition that may increase the risk of offending, and it is also a strong "marker" for other key factors that indicate risk for offending," he said. "Indeed, maturity can be a better indication of adulthood than reaching a particular chronological age.
"It is rare that brain injury is considered by criminal justice professionals when assessing the rehabilitative needs of an offender, even though recent studies from the UK have shown that prevalence of TBI [traumatic brain injury] among prisoners is as high as 60%
"Brain injury has been shown to be a condition that may increase the risk of offending, and it is also a strong 'marker' for other key factors that indicate risk for offending," he adds.
Maggie Atkinson, Children's Commissioner for England, requests the government to assess the mental stability and check for brain injuries in a child or young criminal at the earliest to stop the growth of younger people becoming criminals
"Our failure to identify [these] disorders and put in place measures to prevent young people with such conditions from offending is a tragedy. It affects the victims of their crimes, the children themselves, their families, the services seeking to change offenders' lives for the better, and wider society," she said.
