According to a study in Brazil, a significant reduction in child poverty could reduce the number of criminal convictions by almost a quarter.
An article about the research was published in Scientific Reports . The researchers used an innovative approach that included an analysis of 22 risk factors affecting human development and interviews with 1,905 children on two points: an initial interview to form a baseline (mean age 10.3) and a follow-up interview seven years later ( mean age 17.8).
The scientists concluded that poverty — measured globally as a combination of low schooling for the head of the household, low purchasing power and limited access to basic services — was the only crime-related factor that could be prevented. They used population attributable risk fraction (PARF) estimates to predict the potential reduction in criminal convictions, assuming successful early anti-poverty intervention in the children's lives.
In a scenario without poverty, 22.5% of the criminal convictions of these young people could have been prevented. On the other hand, factors such as unplanned pregnancy, prematurity, breastfeeding, and maternal prenatal smoking or drinking showed no correlation with future criminal convictions.
A holistic view of youth committing crimes is needed to understand the circumstances leading to this situation and a range of avoidable factors must be taken into account.”
Carolina Ziebold, lead author and researcher of the study, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of São Paulo
Ziebold was supported by FAPESP during her PhD research. She also received a Talented Young Investigator grant from CAPES, the Ministry of Education's Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Staff, through the Internationalization Program.
For Ary Gadelha, the paper's final author, the use of a complex measure of poverty, which includes many more factors than household income, is a groundbreaking aspect of the research. Gadelha is professor of psychiatry at EPM-UNIFESP and was Ziebold's thesis advisor.
“The study took into account housing conditions and access to public services such as health care or sanitation, for example to better understand poverty. This led us to advocate broader solutions than just improving income. The many adversities these children face , become difficulties in adulthood, such as low educational attainment and unemployment, among others,” Gadelha told Agência FAPESP.
The approach used in the study is based on an epidemiological method called exposure-wide association, which is similar to the method used in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). “Exposure-wide association studies examine a wide range of potential exposures related to a single outcome (using a hypothesis-free approach),” the authors write.
In this case, they add, the analysis included “multiple modifiable perinatal, individual, family and school-related exposures related to juvenile criminal convictions to identify new potential targets for the prevention of this complex phenomenon”. In addition, they state “when a significant risk factor” [ such as poverty ] established, the magnitude of its impact on criminal convictions should be explained to inform and guide public crime prevention measures”.
Another study, led by Ziebold with the same cohort and published in December 2021, had already found correlations between childhood poverty and an increased propensity to develop externalizing disorders during adolescence and early adulthood, especially in girls. The researchers concluded that multidimensional poverty and exposure to stressful life events, including frequent deaths and family conflict, are avoidable risk factors that need to be addressed in childhood to reduce the impact of mental health problems in adulthood.
In the recent Scientific Reports In the article, the researchers emphasize that although poverty at baseline was the only modifiable risk factor significantly associated with crime as far as the children in the study sample were concerned, most of them (89%) had no criminal convictions.
“We wanted to criminalize poverty and show that it is a complex phenomenon. Exposure to this situation during a lifetime can lead to social tragedy. Crime is a social issue, and punishment alone may not be appropriate in the case of young people. to create real opportunities for rehabilitation – life chances,” said Gadelha.
Only a small proportion (4.3%) of the 1,905 participants surveyed reported a history of criminal convictions, primarily involving theft, violent robbery, drug trafficking and other violent crimes, including manslaughter and attempted manslaughter.
The participants were from the Brazilian High-Risk Cohort Study for Psychiatric Disorders (BHRC), a large community survey of 2,511 families with children ages 6-10 when it began in 2010. They were all students in public schools in two major Brazilian state capitals. , Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul). So far, three follow-up studies have been completed, the last in 2018-2019. A fourth has started this year and is due to be completed in 2024.
The BHRC, also known as Project Connection – Minds of the Future, is considered one of the most ambitious childhood mental health studies ever conducted in Brazil and is led by the National Institute of Developmental Psychiatry (INPD), which is supported by FAPESP and the National Institute of Developmental Psychiatry (INPD). Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), a branch of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI).
More than 20 universities in Brazil and elsewhere are involved in INPD's activities. The principal investigator is Eurípedes Constantino Miguel Filho, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of São Paulo Medical School (FM-USP).
According to a report published in March 2022 by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), “children and adolescents have always been the hardest hit by poverty. At the beginning of 2020, the percentage of children and adolescents living in monetary poverty and extreme monetary poverty in Brazil was was, proportionally, double that of adults”.
Between 35% and 45%, depending on age group, lived on less than $5.50 a day in 2020. The proportion living on less than $1.90 a day – the extreme monetary poverty line – was 12%.
In addition, according to the Center for Social Policy Research (FGV Social) of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, food insecurity reached a record level in Brazil at the end of 2021, surpassing the global average and mainly affecting women, poor families and people aged 30-49. The proportion of the total population suffering from food security reached 36%, compared to 17% in 2014. The global average for 2021 was 35%.
“We know that people have yet to feel the full economic impact of the pandemic, including food insecurity and lack of access to education. The consequences of children's exposure will become apparent in the future,” Ziebold said, adding that more research is needed. is to understand how the vulnerability of the places where children live can influence juvenile delinquency. “This type of factor has been observed in research in other countries, such as the United States, where young people are more likely to commit crimes if they live in areas without infrastructure or with gangs. This is a topic for further research.”
About 46,000 young people in conflict with the law were treated in 2019 by SINASE, the Brazilian special justice system for juvenile offenders.
Source:
Research Support Foundation of the State of São Paulo
Reference magazine:
Ziebold, C., et al . (2022) Individual and family modifiable risk factors for criminal convictions in children: a 7-year cohort study from Brazil. Scientific Reports . doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-13975-8.