New research shows how violence spreads through society

Being exposed to violence, either watching it on TV, seeing it in the flesh or suffering it oneself is more likely to make children think it is normal and could lead to them behaving violently themselves. A team of researchers, led by Izaskun Orue from the University of Duesto in Spain, studied nearly 800 children aged between eight and twelve. They asked them if they had witnessed violence in their own lives or on TV and if they had been a victim of violence. They were also asked about their attitudes to violence by being asked whether they agreed with statements such as 'sometimes you have to hit others because they deserve it.' The children were asked about their own levels of violence and their classmates rated how violent they were. Six months later the children were surveyed again. The schoolchildren who had witnessed or been a victim of violence were more aggressive and observing violence at the first phase of the study was associated with increased aggression six months later. The increased aggression was caused in part by a change in how the children thought that violence was normal. Seeing violence -- at home, school, on TV, or as its victim -- made it seem common, normal, and acceptable and thinking that aggression was normal led to more of it.

Elder abuse - who suffers most?

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago have been looking into the issue of older abuse. They used data from two trauma units in Chicago to compare people over 60 admitted after suffering from elder abuse to people of the same age admitted for different reasons. The researchers found that patients admitted after elder abuse were more likely to be women, to suffer from a neurological or mental disorder and to use drugs and were more than twice as likely to have a drink problem. The people who had suffered elder abuse had more severe injuries and worse outcomes. 85% of the perpetrators were family members or partners and 17% of the victims expressed a desire to return to the perpetrator and not to press charges.

One in seven U.K. mental-health workers attacked

A new survey of staff working in the U.K.'s National Health Service has shown that one in seven mental health workers suffered physical violence from service users or members of the public last year. The NHS staff survey also showed that 18% of mental-health professionals had suffered bullying, harassment and abuse from service users or the public in 2010. 31% of mental-health workers suffered from stress, second only to ambulance workers. The number of staff suffering violence was down slightly from 18% in 2009 to 15% in 2010 but only 40% of those who experienced verbal abuse and 51% of those who suffered physical abuse felt that their employer would take effective action to deal with it.

Gene linked to drunken impulsiveness

Some people who are relatively mild-mannered most of the time can become violent after a few drinks. Researchers from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in Maryland compared the genes of people who had acted impulsively under the influence with those whose behaviour remained more or less the same. They found that those people who had a DNA variation which blocked the action of a gene known as HTR2B were more likely to behave impulsively after they had been drinking.

'Conduct disorder' and juvenile delinquency

12 and 13-year-olds with 'conduct disorder' are much more likely to engage in violent and delinquent behaviour as teenagers. Researchers from the Universite de Montreal studied 4,125 children, following them over a number of years. They found that the 12- and 13-year-olds with conduct disorder who displayed violent behaviour were six times as likely to sell illicit drugs, nine times as likely to join a gang and 11 times as likely to carry a weapon; they were also eight times as likely to be arrested. Children with conduct disorder who weren't violent were also more likely to behave badly being three times as likely to sell illicit drugs, four times as likely to join a gang and three times as likely to mug someone using a weapon.

Violent crime - keeping it in the family

Violent behaviour can be made more likely by sociological, biological and psychological factors. All of these affect families as well as individuals and it is no surprise that violent crime tends to run in families. Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm looked into this in a study of 12.5 million people. They found that first degree (i.e. from the same nuclear family) relatives of people who had committed a violent crime were 4.3 times as likely as average to have been violent themselves while more distant relatives were 1.9 times as likely. By comparing people who lived with their biological families to those who had been adopted the researchers found that both genetic and environmental factors raised the risk of developing violent behaviour. A family risk of violence was stronger among women; in higher socio-economic groups and in those who had behaved violently early in life. Some crimes like arson - where being the sibling of an arsonist made people 22.4 times as likely to commit arson themselves - ran particularly strongly in families.

Frisell, T., Lichtenstein, P. and Langstrom, N. - Violent crime runs in families: a total population study of 12.5 million people Psychological Medicine (2011), 41, 97–105

Methampetamine and violent women

Methamphetamine is widely recognised as being linked to violence and aggression and rates of methamphetamine-related violence among women are equal to, or even higher than, those among men. Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles studied 30 women in a residential treatment programme. 80% had experienced violence in their lifetime, 67% as victim and 57% as perpetrator. Most participants descibed being violent when they were withdrawing from methamphetamine use. Five of the women said  they would never have been violent if they hadn't taken methamphetamine but 10 said that they had pre-existing 'anger issues' that had been made worse by the drug.

Hamilton, Alison B. and Goeders, Nicholas E. - Violence perpetrated by women who use methamphetamine Journal of Substance Use October 2010, 15(5), 313-329

Teenage suicide raises the risk of adult wife beating

Boys who try to kill themselves before the age of 18 are much more likely to beat their wives and girlfriends later in life. Researchers from the Oregon Social Learning Center in Eugene studied 153 males from high-crime neighbourhoods who were assessed annually from the ages of 10 to 32. The researchers found that 58% of the participants who tried to kill themselves as children went on to beat their girlfriends/wives compared to 23% among those who had not tried to commit suicide. The association held true even after taking factors such as aggression, depression, substance abuse and a family history of abuse were

http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=news&id=129086&cn=43

Saturday night's alright for fighting

For many people a fight is as much part of a good night out as drinking, flirting and dancing. Researchers from Glasgow Caledonian University hung around eight city-centre night clubs in a bid to find out more about violence. They saw 171 violent incidents of which 108 involved men. Male violence involved a ritualised choreography of verbal challenges, drink-spilling and jostling whereas female fighting was much more difficult to predict, tended to involve hair-pulling and was more difficult for male security guards to deal with.

Forsyth, A.J.M., and Lennox, J.C. - Gender differences in the choreography of alcohol-related violence: an observational study of aggressive within licensed premises Journal of Substance Use April 2010, 15(2), 75-88

Wife-batterers' warped perceptions

People who drink too much, have an eating disorder or who take drugs often think that their behaviour is more common than it really is. Initiatives aimed at tackling drinking in college have tried to point out that most students drink much less than their peers think they do - and these intiatives can change drinking behaviour. Researchers from the University of Washington interviewed 124 wife-batterers enrolled on a treatment programme to see if they too overestimated how common their behaviour was. They were asked how prevalent they thought various different types of abusive behaviour were and their answers were compared with the actual frequency of such abuse. The participants overestimated how frequent this behaviour was; they thought that 27.6% of men had thrown things at their partner when 'only' 11.9% have done this in reality and they also overestimated the frequency of marital rape - 23.6% vs 7.9%. However, it is not clear whether the men's overestimation of the frequency of this behaviour made them more likely to commit it, or whether the fact that they abused women led them to think that maltreating them was more common than it really is.

You can find out more about this research at

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/03/10/male-batterers-overestimate-domestic-violence-rates/12018.html

Depressed mothers and violent teenagers

Mothers who are depressed during their pregnancy may have children who are more aggressive than others and may also have been more aggressive as teenagers themselves. Researchers from Cardiff University, King's College London and the University of Bristol studied 120 children and interviewed their mothers while they were pregnant, after they gave birth and again when their children were 4, 11 and 16. The mothers who were depressed when they were pregnant were four times as likely to have children who were violent at 16. The mothers' depression was predicted by their own aggressive and disruptive behaviour as teenagers.

You can find out more about this research at

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/02/08/depression-in-pregnancy-may-affect-childs-behavior-as-teen/11262.html

Reducing violence on the wards

Healthcare professionals often suffer from violence and one study of nurses in Minnesota found that 13.2% had been assaulted over the last 12 months. Psychiatric nurses are even more at risk and one study found that 20% were assaulted over the course of a working week. There are several approaches to reducing violence on inpatient wards: identifying and helping the most violent patients, helping staff to anticipate risks and calm situations down before they get violent, and changing the culture of organizations by adopting zero-tolerance policies for violence. Researchers from Massachusetts looked at an intervention in the third category, the Violence Prevention Community Meeting. The meetings included both staff and patients and aimed to change the culture of expectations and attitudes towards violence in order to reduce patients' aggression. Over the 20-week study the meetings were found to lead to significant decreases in violence which fell by 89% when the meetings were being held and by 57% in the four weeks after they had finished.

Lanza, Marilyn L. ... [et al] - Reducing violence against nurses: the Violence Prevention Community Meeting Issues in Mental Health Nursing December 2009, 30(12), 745-750

Young men who live with mum and dad more violent

Far from being wimpy mummy's boys young men who live at home with their parents are more likely to be violent than those who live independently. Living with one's parents has become more common in the past forty years, both in the U.K. and in the U.S. Researchers at Queen Mary, University of London surveyed 8,000 men and women who answered questions about violent behaviour over the past five years and mental-health problems. Although young men living at home make up only 4% of the U.K.'s male population they were responsible for 16% of all violent injuries in the last five years. The study found that the young men had fewer responsibilities and more money to spend on alcohol and were no longer influenced by their parents to conform to standards of behaviour expected of previous generations.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090720102019.htm

Genes, violence and learning disabilities

Between fifteen and twenty per cent of people with learning disabilities have behaviour problems. Researchers from Vanderbilt University in Tennesee have been looking at how genetics might play a part in this. They looked at a gene linked to a substance called monoamine oxidize A (MAOA) which in turn regulates the neurotransmitters serotonin (linked to appetite and mood) and norepinephrine (linked to the 'fight-or-flight' response). Previous studies have linked a variation in this gene to violent behaviour. The researchers studied 105 men between the ages of 18 and 50. Some had learning disabilities and a history of violent behaviour, others had learning disabilities but no history of violent behaviour while the remainder formed a control group of men with no learning disabilities and no history of violence. The researchers found that 43% of those with learning disabilities and a violent past had the gene variation compared to only 20% of the other two groups.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090721122855.htm

Alcohol, glucose and violent crime

There is a strong link between alcohol intoxication and violent crime but not everyone who drinks becomes aggressive or violent. A Finnish study of 89 people compared impulsive, violent, antisocial male offenders to a non-offending control group. The participants' glycogen levels (which are connected to glucose metabolism) were measured at the start of the study and the participants were followed for eight years to see whether they committed any violent crime. 17 of the offenders re-offended over the course of the study and the average glycogen levels of these people were much lower than in those participants who stayed out of trouble.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090601092149.htm

Risk factors for violence in schizophrenia

Most people with schizophrenia are not violent but they are more likely to commit violent acts than other people. This can be especially true if people with schizophrenia also abuse drugs or alcohol or have a history of violence before diagnosis. A team of researchers, led by Dr Seena Fazel at Warneford Hospital in Oxford analyzed data from 13,800 people with schizophrenia in Sweden. They found that those people whose parents had been convicted of a violent crime were 65-83% more likely to commit one themselves. The researchers thought that this could be due either to a genetic cause which led to both parents and their children becoming more violent, or the effects on children of growing up in a violent home.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE53L42520090422?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

Parenting programmes and reducing aggression

Aggressive behaviour in childhood can often lead on to bad behaviour in adolescence and adulthood. For most people aggression is most common during early childhood. It increases rapidly from one to three and then declines after that. If people carry on being aggressive after three that is a strong indication that they will behave badly later. There are a number of programmes aimed at reducing aggression in young children and these have been shown to improve parenting practices and reduce, or prevent, bad behaviour. Researchers from New York University looked into the links between one such parenting programme, parenting practices and aggression. They studied 92 families where one child had already been in trouble with the law and studied the effect of the Incredible Years Series programme on their younger siblings who were aged between 2 3/4 and 5 1/4. Half the families took part in the programme while the other half formed a control group. The intervention was found to have a significant effect over time in reducing aggression which increased in the control group. Improved parenting practices were found to be responsible for 40% of the improvement caused by the parenting programme. Harsh parenting, which increased aggression, and responsive parenting, which decreased it, were found to be most closely linked to aggression. Stimulating parenting (which decreased aggression) was less-closely, but still significantly linked to a reduction in aggression.

Brotman, Laurie Miller ... [et al] - An experimental test of parenting practices as a mediator of early childhood physical aggression Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry March 2009, 50(3), 235-245

Aggression, alcohol and expectancy

Aggression linked to alcohol is a big problem. Its causes can include the physical environment, who people are with and how drunk people are. One factor in people's psychological make-up that makes them more likely to become violent when drunk is what psychologists call their "alcohol-aggression outcome expectancy." Put simply, if people expect to become violent when they get drunk they are more likely to end up being violent. A study of 122 students by researchers at Nottingham University looked into the links between heavy drinking, people's natural propensity to become aggressive and their propensity to become aggressive when drunk - a measure which included their alcohol-aggression outcome expectancy. The study found that higher levels of drinking and higher innate aggression both significantly predicted a tendency to become violent when drunk but that innate aggression was the stronger predictor.

McMurran, Mary - The relationships between alcohol use, trait aggression, and the alcohol-aggression outcome expectancy in male students Journal of Substance Use February 2009, 14(1), 1-9

Sex differences and violence on the wards

Although there is a large body of research into what causes aggression among psychiatric inpatients there is less research into what characteristics of staff can cause, or prevent, violence. Age, skill and experience have been shown to have an impact on aggression but there have been mixed results from studies into the effects of gender. A study of a medium secure unit in the north-west of England examined this issue in two male and two female wards and found that patients were more likely to behave aggressively towards members of the same sex.

Knowles, Susan F., Coyne, Sarah M. and Brown, Stephen L. - Sex differences in aggressive incidents towards staff in secure services The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology December 2008, 19(4), 620-631

Drugs, aggression and schizophrenia

Recent research into schizophrenia has focused on some of the cognitive deficits associated with the condition which can have a greater impact on everyday activities than psychotic symptoms and have also been associated with violence. Some studies have suggested that second-generation antipsychotics are more effective at tackling cognitive deficits than earlier drugs while others have reported no advantage. Researchers in the U.S. studied 100 physically-aggressive inpatients with schizophrenia. A third were given clozapine, a third olanzapine and a third haloperidol. Olanzapine was much more effective at reducing participants' cognitive problems. In participants taking olanzapine - but not the two other drugs - improvements in cognition were associated with a reduction in violence. Clozapine was also found to markedly reduce violence but without improving participants' cognition.

Krakowski, Menachem I., Czobor, Pal and Nolan , Karen A. - Atypical antipsychotics, neurocognitive deficits, and aggression in schizophrenic patients. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology October 2008, 28(5), 485-493