Can a concussion at an early age cause criminal behavior later in life?

Suffering from a concussion or mild traumatic brain at an early age can lead to an increased risk of criminal behavior later in life according to interesting research published in the journal Frontiers in May 2023.

Mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI), or concussions, are a complicated and dangerous medical condition that isn’t well understood by modern science. But we know they can create long-lasting issues. 

After a brain injury, some patients suffer from a range of symptoms but the scariest are changes in mood and that can lead to anger issues and outbursts of extreme violence. 

In 2014, a groundbreaking study found that as many as one-third of people who were suffering from a concussion reported aggressive outbursts related to their new injury. 

Injury-related depression, anger, and problematic irritability were linked to unfavorable social outcomes like social isolation and family issues according to the study’s authors.

However, one of the most worrying long-term trends found in some mild traumatic brain injury cases is the high likelihood of eventually becoming entangled in criminal behavior. 

“Sustaining a mild traumatic brain injury has been linked to increased criminal behavior in later life,” wrote the authors of the Frontiers study published in May 2023 that linked brain injuries to criminal activity later in life. 

The study looked at patients who were under 16 years old at the time of their injury and tracked criminality later in their lives using data from New Zealand’s Ministry of Justice. 

A control group of patients who had fractured their legs under the same age conditions as those who had injured their brains was used to help add some validity to the findings. 

The study aimed to discover if people who suffered one or multiple mild traumatic brain injuries were more likely to engage in criminal activity ten years after suffering their head injury and the results were nothing short of shocking. 

“It was revealed that people who experienced a single mTBI have a higher number of violent charges and convictions over the following 10-year post-injury period,” the study’s authors wrote, adding that this link was only observed in violent offenses. 

People who had a prior history of suffering multiple mild traumatic brain injuries were more likely to have more criminal convictions or court charges, which led the study's authors to suggest that multiple brain injuries could have a cumulative effect. 

“The findings also provide evidence that the link between TBI and violent criminal behavior remains after controlling for known predictors of criminal behavior such as deprivation, prior criminal behavior, ethnicity, and age,” the study’s authors wrote.

Men were most affected by a single mild traumatic brain injury and it made them more likely to engage in criminal behavior ten years later while the effects of a single incident. 

Interestingly, the study’s authors observed that women were not affected by a mild brain injury in the same way as men, and found no evidence of their later criminal activity after sustaining just one injury to their brain.

The study's authors reported that their findings regarding men and women were of note and suggested that they may reflect the fact "that men are more likely to be arrested for criminal activities than females." '

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