Crime and neighborhood disorder may negatively impact the health of urban residents. Neighborhoods with high levels of violent crime may also increase residents' risk of experiencing violence. Most studies supporting the assertion that neighborhood disorder impacts mental health have used residents' own ratings of their neighborhoods. The present study examines the relationships among block-gro...

In this paper, we pursue several strategies to identify the effect of unemployment rates on crime rates. Using a state-level panel for the period from 1971 to 1997, we estimate the effect of unemployment on the rates of seven felony offenses. We control extensively for state-level demographic and economic factors and estimate specifications that allow for state-specific time trends as well as s...

To the editor: We were interested to read Gamble and Hess’s study finding that the daily incidence of violent crime in Dallas increased with temperatures up to 90°F (32.2°C), but decreased above this threshold. On this basis, their abstract surprisingly concludes that “higher ambient temperatures expected with climate change.... are not likely to be accompanied by markedly higher rates of viole...

Abstract Research Question What proportion of ambulance records documenting injuries caused by criminal violence is included in police for violent crimes occurring the same area at dates and times as incidents found records? Data We analysed subsets three datasets during matched time periods: West Midlands Ambulance Service all 36,639 from January 2012 to March 2017; 132,317 Police December 201...

Clinical guidelines recommend that violence risk be assessed in schizophrenia. Current approaches are resource-intensive as they employ detailed clinical assessments of dangerousness for most patients. An alternative approach would be to first screen out patients at very low risk of future violence prior to more costly and time-consuming assessments. In order to implement such a stepped strateg...

Misuse of alcohol is a significant public health problem, potentially resulting in unintentional injuries, motor vehicle crashes, drownings, and, perhaps of greatest concern, serious acts of violence, including assaults, rapes, suicides, and homicides. Although previous research establishes a link between alcohol consumption to increased levels of violence, studies relating the density of alcoh...

Objectives—To establish the link between frontal lobe dysfunction and violent and criminal behaviour, based on a review of relevant literature. Methods—Articles relating evidence of frontal lobe dysfunction with violence or crime were collected through a MEDLINE search using the keyword “frontal lobe” combined with the terms “aggression,” “violence,” “crime,” “antisocial personality disorder,” ...

This study compares changes in children's blood lead levels in the United States with subsequent changes in IQ, based on norm comparisons for the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) given to representative national samples of children in 1984 and 1992. The CogAT norm comparisons indicate shifts in IQ levels consistent with the blood lead to IQ relationship reported by an earlier study and populati...

Violent and anti-social behavior is usually attributed to social factors, including poverty, poor education, and family instability. There is also evidence that many forms of violent behavior are more frequent in individuals of lower IQ. The role of exposure to environmental contaminants has received little attention as a factor predisposing to violent behavior. However a number of environmenta...