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The British Journal of Psychiatry (2002) 180: 496-501
© 2002 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Perinatal and childhood risk factors for later criminality and violence in schizophrenia

Longitudinal, population-based study

MARY CANNON, MRCPsych

Institute of Psychiatry, London

MATTI O. HUTTUNEN, PhD and ANTTI J. TANSKANEN, BSc

Department of Mental Health and Alcohol Research, National Public Health Institute, Helsinki

LOUISE ARSENEAULT, PhD

Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London

PETER B. JONES, MRCPsych

University of Cambridge, UK

ROBIN M. MURRAY, MRCPsych

Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK

Correspondence: Mary Cannon, Division of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF, UK. Tel: 020 7848 0415; fax: 020 7701 9044; e-mail: m.cannon{at}iop.kcl.ac.uk

Declaration of interest None.

Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.

Background Individuals with schizophrenia appear to be at increased risk for violent and criminal behaviour. Obstetric complications, neuromotor problems and intellectual deficits have variously been reported as increasing the risk for criminality in the general population.

Aims To investigate whether such risk factors are associated with criminal behaviour in an epidemiological cohort of patients with schizophrenia.

Method We identified from health care registers all individuals with schizophrenia born in Helsinki between 1951 and 1960, and used the national criminal register to identify those with a criminal record by 1995. Childhood information was obtained from archived birth and school records.

Results Poor educational attainment, poor grades for attention at school, higher birth weight and larger head circumference were significantly associated with the risk of criminal offending in adulthood in this sample of patients with schizophrenia. An association between labour/delivery complications and later violent offending among male patients was of borderline significance.

Conclusions Our hypotheses that birth complications and childhood neuromotor problems would increase the risk of criminal offending in schizophrenia were not upheld.


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