Biological treatment for offenders - improved diet

Question 1

what did Simon Moore et al. (2009) find ?

Answer 1

that among a group of violent offenders: 69% reported eating ‘confectionary’ (defined as sweets and sugary snacks) pretty much everyday, during childhood.

Question 2

what can be concluded from Simon Moore et al. (2009) ?

Answer 2

that there may be a link between high consumption of confectionary and violent behaviour, although it would be unwise to conclude that sugar causes violent crime.

Question 3

what does a high sugar diet cause ?

Answer 3

changes in blood sugar levels

Question 4

what do junk food, sugary snacks and sweets create ?

Answer 4

high glucose levels which, in turn, trigger major insulin secretions to soak these up.

Question 5

what does the triggering of major insulin secretions lead to ?

Answer 5

a shortage of glucose - hypoglycaemia

Question 6

what is hypoglycaemia associated with ?

Answer 6

irritability, difficulty making judgements, and, in extreme cases, violent outbursts.

Question 7

what did David Benton et al. (1996) find ?

Answer 7

that children playing a video game become more aggressive as their blood sugar level decreased - suggesting that blood sugar level does indeed impact on behaviour.

Question 8

what does brain function depend on ?

Answer 8

biochemical processes - and these in turn rely on a steady supply of the right sort of vitamins and minerals.

Question 9

what are the most important vitamins and minerals in relation to criminal behaviour ?

Answer 9

1) unsaturated fatty acids (particularly omega 3)
2) magnesium
3) zinc
4) iron
5) vitamins B, C, D

Question 10

what has a lack in nutrients been linked to ?

Answer 10

mental illnesses such as depression, as well as behavioural problems such as aggression.

Question 11

what was implemented, to improve the diet of offenders ?

Answer 11

a baseline measure of diet is established first (this will ascertain what particular minerals and vitamins the offender is currently lacking and how this can best be addressed).

Question 12

in most cases, what is usually added to an offender’s diet when attempting to improve it ?

Answer 12

a multi-vitamin will be added to the offender’s diet - after which, any effects on behaviour will be monitored over a given period.

Question 13

what did Bernard Gesch et al. (2002) want to test ?

Answer 13

whether improved diet (due to an increase in vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids) was linked to a reduction in anti-social behaviour.

Question 14

what was the procedure of Bernard Gesch et al. (2002) ?

Answer 14

• 231 inmates in a young offender’s institute participated
• involved for between 2 weeks to 9 months
• independent variable = whether given a daily vitamin, mineral and essential fatty acid (in addition to a normal diet)
• control group were given placebos
• two groups were matched for disciplinary incidents and progress in the prison regime
• double blind procedure was used
• baseline measure of diet, as well as assessments of anger, anxiety and depression were taken at the beginning of the study

Question 15

what were the findings of the Bernard Gesch et al. (2002) ?

Answer 15

• experimental group - 35.1% reduction in disciplinary incidents per ‘thousand-person days’
• reduction in the control group for this was only 6.7%
• significant reduction in serious violent incidents in the experimental group of 37%
• in the control group, this was just 10.1%

Question 16

what conclusions were drawn from Bernard Gesch et al. 2002 ?

Answer 16

• supplementing offender’s diets with vitamins, minerals and fatty acids is linked to a decrease in incidents of anti-social behaviour, including violent behaviour.
• Gesch’s findings are likely to have implications beyond the institutional setting for those eating a poor diet in the wider community.

Question 17

what is a strength of this treatment ?

Answer 17

supporting evidence - Gesch et al. 2002
- however, it took place in an institutional setting where behaviour is rule-based and highly controlled - we cannot know from this study alone whether the effect of diet on anti-social behaviour would generalise to real-life settings.

Question 18

what is a weakness of improved diet treatment (cause-and-effect problem) ?

Answer 18

• it is difficult to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between diet and crime
• crime is a complex social activity that is unlikely to be addressed by treating a single factor alone
• those in society with the poorest diets are also likely to be those most socially and economically deprived (factors such as these, rather than diet , may be the root cause)
• therefore, the effects of being given a vitamin may be short-lived for offenders, if they return to the same circumstances that they had originally been in

Question 19

what is a further weakness of the improved diet treatment ?

Answer 19

• most outcome studies are geared towards reducing aggression and anti-social behaviour.
• dietary treatments tend to focus on controlling aggressive urges (not all criminal acts are associated with aggression and violence).
• E.g., a person who has committed fraud (financial crime) are unlikely to be helped by an improvement in diet
• this means that the benefits of an improved diet may be limited to certain types of crime

Question 20

what is a strength of Gesch’s study ?

Answer 20

• its degree of control
• use of double-blind procedure minimised the effect of demand characteristics among the offenders, as well as the experimenters (increases the validity of the study)
• the use of a matched pairs design meant that the difference in outcome could not have been explained by any other factor except the difference in the quality of diet (increased the internal validity)