1. Objectifs

Intentions :
The aims of the study were to «document the prevalence of TBIs [traumatic brain injuries] among individuals with offender status and nonoffender status in childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood; [d]etermine whether TBIs preceded or followed criminal conviction; [c]ompare childhood characteristics of individuals with offender status who sustained TBIs before or after conviction with individuals with nonoffender status with no TBI; and [d]etermine whether experiencing a TBI at different developmental stages predicted offending after taking account of known childhood predictors of offending.» (p. 124) Family social status were also assessed in this study.

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
Authors «examined a sample of 724 males from Quebec, Canada, followed to age 24. […] Participants were males drawn from two cohorts recruited when they entered elementary school and followed to age 24. From this sample of 2,631 males, 371 who were charged with a criminal offense from age 18 to age 24 and a random sample of 371 without a criminal charge from age 18 to age 24 were selected. Complete data for the present study were available for 724 of these 742 men.» (p. 124)

Instruments :
Questionnaires

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

In this sample, «proportionately more of those who had acquired a criminal conviction by age 24 sustained a TBI from age 18 to age 24, but not at younger ages. While previous studies reported a higher prevalence of TBIs among offenders than nonoffenders, in the present study the higher prevalence of TBIs among offenders emerged only at age 18 or later. We further extended knowledge by showing that similar proportions of offenders had sustained a first TBI before and after their first conviction for any type of crime or for a violent crime. Offenders who sustained at least one TBI prior to conviction and those who were convicted before sustaining a TBI were similar in childhood, having been raised in families of low social status and presenting high levels of disruptive behaviors. Taken together, these results suggest that it was men who had been raised by single parents who were young and poorly educated with low prestige jobs, and who had displayed conduct problems, behaviors that hurt other children, inattention, and hyperactivity through elementary school who were at increased risk to sustain a TBI in adulthood.» (p. 128) «These results add further evidence and support to the hypotheses that TBIs do not predict criminal convictions after taking account of characteristics of the family of origin and previous aggressive behavior and criminality.» (p. 129)