Treatments for offenders: Biological treatment (Diet) Flashcards
When it comes to diet, what is thought to affect aggression?
Vitamins, minerals and/or fatty acids
Do the vitamins, minerals or fatty acids have to be too low or high to affect aggression?
Too low
As a treatment, what is added to an offenders diet when in prison?
Multi vitamins
What has to be done before an offenders diet is changed?
An analysis of their dietary intake to establish what they are low on.
Who conducted research into the relationship between sugar levels and violence?
Benton et al (1996) found that children playing a video game became more aggressive as their blood sugar level decreased.
Other than Benton (1996) who else conducted research into sugar and its link with violence?
Moore et al (2009) - found that 69% of a group of violent offenders reported eating ‘confectionary’ almost every day during childhood.
Which vitamins, minerals and fatty acids have been linked to crime?
Omega 3 (fatty acid), magnesium, zinc, iron, vitamins B, C and D
Who did research into adding vitamins etc into an offenders diet whilst in prison and what did they find?
Zaalberg (2009) - found that adding magnesium, vitamin D and omega 3 to young offenders diets’ decreased violent events by 34% in comparison to a control which which increased violent events by 14%
Who did a research study with 231 inmates in a young offenders institute?
Gesch et al (2002) - found that disciplinary incidents dropped by 35% when they had extra supplements in their diet.
What is a strength of improving diet is support from research evidence?
There is a wealth of research studies that support the theory.
Schoenthaler (1983) found a 48% reduction in formal disciplinary incidents among 276 young offenders.
The study took over two years and saw a reduction in sugar consumed rather than supplements.
What is a counter argument to Gesch and Schoenthaler’s work?
Both studies were conducted in institutional settings where behaviour is highly controlled.
We cannot know from these studies alone whether the effects of diet would generalise to real life settings.
What is a weakness of using diet as a treatment for crime?
The cause and effect link between diet and crime is unclear.
People with the poorest diets are also most likely to be living in socially and economically deprived circumstances. These may the causes of offending.
What is a strength of Gesch et al’s (2002) study?
It was well controlled.
They used a double blind procedure which minimised the effect of demand characteristics on prisoners.
Groups were matched on key variables so differences in outcome between groups could not be explained by other factors
How can we link diet as a treatment for crime to issues and debates?
Improved diet is a reductionist approach to treating offenders.
An approach to treating offenders that focuses solely on a physiological, chemical level is reductionist.
