Violence is rarely out of the news at the moment, so it's useful to look at it from a developmental perspective. The infants at greatest risk of later conduct problems are those with 'disorganised attachment', which is associated with neglect or abuse in the family. Such children have been frightened by what should have been their source of security. The paradox of that scrambles the mind.
Longitudinal studies following disorganised infants suggest they are at high risk of later psychopathology such as dissociative identity disorder, borderline personality disorder and interpersonal violence.
Conditions associated with early abuse and neglect include panic attacks, ADHD, post-traumatic stress disorder and attachment difficulties. Abused and neglected children are at least 25 per cent more likely to experience problems such as delinquency, teen pregnancy, drug use and mental health problems. The likelihood of adult criminal behaviour increases by 28 per cent and violent crime by 30 per cent. A study of homicidal children found that 96 per cent came from chaotic family backgrounds, 90 per cent had been abused by a family member as a small child, and all had a history of serious school problems.
The experience of severe traumatic attachments in the first two years of life results in structural limitations of the early developing right brain. This is the hemisphere that is dominant in the processing of social and emotional information, regulation of bodily states, capacity to cope with emotional stress, empathy and the sense of self. This area of the brain will reflect the emotional environment of the time of greatest brain growth, as the baby's brain adapts to the relationship with the parents.
The enduring functional coping deficits of disorganised attachment indicate a defect in the right orbitofrontal cortex. Dysfunction in this brain area may result in the personality deficits that parallel violent criminal behaviour - a lack of affect regulation, coupled with an unconscious 'hair-trigger' stress response. These create the physiological background to mindless violence, as the foundations for emotional understanding, self-control and experiencing remorse have been compromised. Programmes to prevent youth crime need an early start.
Robin Balbernie is a consultant child psychotherapist in Gloucestershire.
