BIRTH COMPLICATIONS COMBINED WITH EARLY MATERNAL REJECTION AT AGE-1 YEAR PREDISPOSE TO VIOLENT CRIME AT AGE-18 YEARS

Background: This study tests the biosocial interaction hypothesis that birth complications when combined with early maternal rejection of th e infant predispose to adult violent crime. Methods: This hypothesis w as tested using a cohort of 4269 consecutive live male births on whom measures of birth complications (age 0), early maternal rejection (age 1 year),and violent crime (age 18 years) were collected. Results: A s ignificant interaction (P<.0001) between birth complications and early maternal rejection indicated that those who suffered both birth compl ications and early child rejection were most likely to become violent offenders in adulthood. While only 4.5% of the subjects had both risk factors, this small group accounted for 18% of all violent crimes. The effect was specific to violence and was not observed for nonviolent c riminal offending. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first st udy to show that birth complications in combination with early child r ejection predispose to violent crime. The findings illustrate the crit ical importance of integrating biological with social measures to full y understand how violence develops and also suggest that prenatal, per inatal, and early postnatal health care interventions could significan tly reduce violence.