A. Raine et al., BIRTH COMPLICATIONS COMBINED WITH EARLY MATERNAL REJECTION AT AGE-1 YEAR PREDISPOSE TO VIOLENT CRIME AT AGE-18 YEARS, Archives of general psychiatry, 51(12), 1994, pp. 984-988
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.