Suffering a minor head injury as a child may increase your chances of becoming a criminal, a study suggests.
In a study of more than 300,000 people, researchers in Denmark compared rates of minor traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in children under 10 years old with adolescents with criminal records.
The team found that children who had suffered a concussion were more than 25 percent more likely to commit or be convicted of a crime by age 20.
Researchers believe this could be due to concussions leading to behavioral problems, antisocial behavior and aggression, which could increase the risk of committing a criminal offence.
Suffering a minor head injury as a child may increase your chances of becoming a criminal
The findings come as nearly four million Americans are expected to suffer a concussion each year, which causes the brain to bounce forcefully back and forth inside the skull.
Typically caused by contact sports such as football, head injury has also been associated with an increased risk of brain disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and dementia.
In the study, published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers evaluated 343,027 Danish adults born between 1995 and 2000.
The team then analyzed emergency room visits for children between birth and age 10 from Denmark’s National Patient Registry and compared them to criminal justice records for adolescents and young adults ages 15 to 20.
They noted that 20 years old is the most likely age for Danish citizens to commit a crime.
Crimes assessed included vandalism, violence and assault.
Of the participants, about 13,000 had been diagnosed with a minor traumatic brain injury before age 10, 20,000 had committed a crime, and about 13,000 had been convicted.
The team found that participants who had suffered a mild traumatic brain injury during childhood were 26 percent more likely to commit a crime between ages 15 and 20, and were 24 percent more likely to be convicted of a crime than those who did not suffer a concussion. .
The researchers wrote: “Our analysis confirmed that sustaining a traumatic brain injury during childhood is positively associated with criminal charges and convictions in mid-to-late adolescence.”
While researchers aren’t sure what exactly is behind the increase, they noted that it could be due to mood changes from suffering a traumatic brain injury.
Although most concussions can cause temporary feelings of irritability and anxiety, repeated injuries have been shown to cause lasting changes such as anger, depression, and impulsivity, which could lead to poor decision-making and criminal behavior.
It could also be that children who become delinquents also take more risks during their childhood.
Mild traumatic brain injuries are often caused by contact sports such as football and soccer. The CDC recommends wearing a protective helmet to protect against concussions.
This is not the first study to find a link between TBI and criminal behavior. TO study 2018for example, he found that traumatic brain injury was associated “with a younger age of incarceration, a higher risk of violence, and more convictions” due to impulsivity and lack of empathy.
Furthermore, a study 2023 in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry found that mild traumatic brain injury led to “a significantly higher number of violent charges and convictions,” particularly in men.