Crime, Malnutrition, and Other Forms of Cerebral Trauma

It is my intention in giving this paper to set the scene for the following papers and discussions. Crime, in the minds of most people, is becoming an increasingly serious problem. Whilst the majority of crimes are on the increase, it is those involving violence which cause us the most concern. However, that increase is not so apparent when we turn from the newspapers to hard statistics. From 1966 actual offences increased from 1,094,889 to 1,809,135 in 1973. The percentage of violent crimes remained relatively constant varying from 6.7 to the low point of 6.3 percent in 1973 (Statistics Canada). The increase in absolute numbers of crimes committed is of course offset to some degree by the increase in population, but the increase must remain as a cause for concern by reason of its cost in human wastage, distress, and the cost to our economy. To attempt to define crime is a difficult if not impossible task. It is a task faced by sociologists for decades in their consid-