Fighting poverty during childhood could reduce the risk of young people committing crime by almost a quarter, according to research carried out in Brazil and published in the magazine Scientific Reports. One of the innovations of the study is the method adopted: 22 risk factors that can have an impact on human development were analyzed and more than 1,900 children were monitored for a period of seven years, until they reached youth.
The mathematical method explores a wide range of potential exposures related to a single outcome, using a hypothesis-free approach. In this case, the scientists worked with the multiple modifiable exposures – perinatal, individual, family and school – associated with juvenile crime to identify new potential targets for preventing the phenomenon. When a significant risk factor is pointed out, such as poverty, it can be a target of prevention policies.
Another research also conducted by Ziebold with the same cohort and published in December 2021 had already shown an association between childhood poverty and a greater propensity to develop externalizing mental disorders in youth, especially among women. The researchers concluded that poverty and exposure to stressful situations, including death and family conflict, are avoidable risk factors that need to be addressed in childhood to reduce the impact of mental disorders in adulthood (Read more at: agencia.FAPESP.br/37588/).
Results
In the article, the group highlights that, although childhood poverty was the only risk factor significantly associated with youth crime, most of the poor at the beginning of the study had no involvement with crime afterwards.
“One concern was not to criminalize poverty, but to show that it is a complex phenomenon, whose exposure of the individual to this situation throughout life generates a social tragedy. The phenomenon of criminality is a social issue and, possibly, only punishment in the case of young people is not adequate. It is necessary to create real possibilities for rehabilitation and give life opportunities”, completes Gadelha.
A total of 1,905 participants were interviewed, both at baseline (mean age 10 years) and at the assessment performed seven years later (mean age 17.8 years). Of this total, 4.3% of young people reported criminal involvement. Among the most common types of crimes committed are theft, drug trafficking and violent crimes, including a homicide and an attempted murder.
These participants are from the Brazilian High-Risk Cohort Study for Childhood Psychiatric Disorders (BHRC), a community-based survey that since 2010 has followed 2,511 families with children and young people, aged between 6 and 10 years, in Porto Alegre ( RS) and São Paulo. They participated in three evaluation stages, the last being between 2018 and 2019 – a new phase was started this year and should end in mid-2024.
The BHRC, also known as Connection Project – Minds of the Future, is considered one of the main follow-ups on the risks of mental disorders in children and adolescents already developed in Brazilian psychiatry. It is carried out by the National Institute of Developmental Psychiatry for Children and Adolescents (INPD), supported by FAPESP and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).
The institute, with more than 20 Brazilian and international universities, has as its general coordinator the professor of the Department of Psychiatry at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo (FM-USP) Eurípedes Constantino Miguel Filho.
impacts
Report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) released in March this year showed that children and adolescents continue to be the most affected by poverty in Brazil – twice as much as adults.