Korean J Prev Med.  1994 Mar;27(1):25-43.

Relationship between Violent Criminal Behavior and Imbalance of Scalp Hair Minerals in Man

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Korea.
  • 2Department of Medicine, Taegu Correctional Institution, Korea.

Abstract

To estimate the factors to the inclination of the criminal violence, the content of trace minerals and toxic metals in the scalp hair were measured during the period from May 1992 to october 1992. One hundred eleven violent and 89 nonviolent criminal inmates of Taegu correctional Institute were selected. The inmates of violent criminals were imprisoned by murder, robber, rape, injury and violent acts. Those of nonviolent criminals were swindle, larceny, and adultery and had no history of institutional violence. The contents of two toxic metals(cadmium, lead) and five trace minerals(Cu, Fe, Zn, Mg, Na) were determined by an atomic absorption spectrophotometer(lL. 551). The contents of cadmium and lead in hair of violent criminals were significantly higher as 0.56+/-0.14ppm, 11.53+/-3.32ppm, respectively, than 0.42+/-0.20ppm, 9.63+/-4.31ppm of nonviolent group (P<0.01). But the level of copper was significantly lower than nonviolent group (P<0.05). The factors that had a significant correlation with the inclination of violence in multiple logistic regression analysis were cadmium (odds ratio=98.09), unmarried (odds ratio=0.39), many times of criminal history (odds ratio=l.57) and residence of rural area (odds ratio=0.44). The results suggest that the sub-toxic contents of cadmium and lead in the hair may be of potential effect on behavior, and the mineral analysis may be an important adjunctive diagnostic procedure. Further studies into this problem are necessary.

Keyword

heavy metal; hair mineral; violent criminal behavior

MeSH Terms

Absorption
Cadmium
Copper
Criminals*
Daegu
Extramarital Relations
Hair*
Homicide
Humans
Logistic Models
Metals
Minerals*
Rape
Scalp*
Single Person
Violence
Cadmium
Copper
Metals
Minerals
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