Biological treatment for offenders

• Diet:

  • Suggested that deficits in minerals, vitamins or essential fatty acids may be linked to violent behaviour​
  • Low blood sugar linked to irritability​
  • Using diet as a treatment for offender assumes that minerals, vitamins and/or fatty acids affect aggression. ​
  • If any of these are at low levels then aggression will increase. ​
  • Multi vitamins are added to an offender’s diet.​
  • Before the offender’s diet is changed there needs to be an analysis of their dietary intake to see what they are low on.
• Limited research for diet:

  • correlation does not show causation​
  • unclear what types of anti-social behaviours being researched​
  • drug-taking is a confounding variable
• Supporting/negating evidence:

  • Benton (1996) found that as children’s blood sugar levels dipped their aggression when playing a video game increased. ​
  • Zaalberg (2009) found that adding magnesium, vitamin D and omega 3 to young offenders’ diets decreased violent events by 34%, whilst violent events increased by 14% in a control group. ​
  • Gesch et al (2002) found that disciplinary incidents dropped by 35% when they had extra supplements in their diet. ​
  • Therefore changing diet does seem to have a positive effect on aggression, and it is a relatively cheap way of treating offenders.
• Evaluation:

  • Positive​
  • Cheap​
  • Easy - not much commitment (as compared to AMP)​
  • No distress​
  • No negative side effects​
  • Negative​
  • Must remember to take tablets​
  • Other factors such as alcohol and drugs can create aggression​
  • Not all crime comes from anger (reductionist)
• Gesch 2002:

  • Background There is evidence that offenders consume diets lacking in essential nutrients and this could adversely affect their behaviour.​
  • Aims To test empirically if physiologically adequate intakes of vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids cause a reduction in antisocial behaviour.​
  • Method Experimental, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised trial of nutritional supplements on 231 young adult prisoners, comparing disciplinary offences before and during supplementation.​
• Gesech 2002 cont:

  • Results Compared with placebos, those receiving the active capsules committed an average of 26.3% (95% CI 8.3-44.33%) fewer offences (P=0.03, two-tailed). Compared to baseline, the effect on those taking active supplements for a minimum of 2 weeks (n=172) was an average 35.1% (95% CI 16.3-53.9%) reduction of offences (P<0.001, two-tailed), whereas placebos remained within standard error.​
• Gesech 2002 cont:

  • Conclusions Antisocial behaviour in prisons, including violence, are reduced by vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids with similar implications for those eating poor diets in the community​
• Trial profile

  
• Clinical implications​

  • Dietary interventions should be considered when addressing antisocial behaviours.​
  • Without rigorous experimental designs, nutritional effects on antisocial behaviours maybe subsumed within effects currently attributed to social risk factors.​
  • Dietary standards should be re-assessed to take account of behavioural effects
• • ​

  Limitations​

  • Behavioural effects may apparent in those consuming the poorest diets.​
  • Reductions in antisocial behaviours attributed to nutrition may be underestimated due to interactions between groups in prison.​
  • Biochemical measures were not available and will be required in any replication to explore the utilisation of nutrients and also mediating mechanisms
• Generalisability:

  Specific population: The participants were young adult males from a specific setting (prison), which may limit the study's applicability to other populations, such as the general public, women, or individuals outside institutional settings. The behaviour of incarcerated individuals may be influenced by factors that differ from those in non-incarcerated populations, such as heightened stress, socio-economic deprivation, and institutionalized environments.
• Reliability:

  Inter-rater reliability: If multiple observers were involved in recording aggression or behavioral incidents, the reliability of these measures would depend on the consistency of their observations. Ideally, the study would have ensured that different raters were in agreement regarding what counted as aggression, which increases the reliability of the findings.
• Applicability:

  • Experience aggression (especially in institutionalized settings like prisons or psychiatric institutions),
  • Have nutritional deficiencies, or
  • Are part of young adult male populations where aggression is a concern.

  However, its general applicability to broader groups, such as the general population, older adults, or women, is more limited. Further research would be needed to explore whether the same results can be observed in different settings, with different populations, or using alternative methods of dietary intervention.
• Validity:

  validity is strong in several areas, particularly in terms of internal validity due to its rigorous experimental design (randomization, placebo control, double-blind procedure). However, there are certain limitations to its external validity , particularly given that the study was conducted with a very specific sample (young male prisoners) and in a controlled prison environment.
• Ethics:

  Informed consent could have been influenced by the prison context, where participants might have felt pressured to participate. Safeguards would need to ensure truly voluntary consent.

  The right to withdraw from the study and the non-deceptive nature of the placebo-controlled design were generally well-handled, although concerns about coercion and transparency in a prison setting are valid.