Lead exposure and child maltreatment as models for how to conceptualize early‐in‐life risk factors for violence

Abstract

Although rates of violent crime have been on the decline in the United States for the past two decades, young people—and particularly young men—continue to commit and fall victim to alarmingly high rates of violence. Effective prevention requires data on what the determinants of violence are and when in the life course they emerge. The goal of this review was to identify early‐in‐life risk factors for violence and to describe (a) who is most affected and (b) effect mechanisms. I focus on abuse and neglect and exposure to lead as risk factors for violence that disproportionately affect young children and that are likely to have causal effects on development. I conclude with future directions for research and intervention.

The early biopsychosocial development of boys and the origins of violence in males

“…A great deal of research has pointed to biological components in the etiology of human violence perpetration (Dodge, ; Glenn, this issue; Moffitt, Caspi, Rutter, & Silva, ; Raine, , this issue; Tremblay & Côté, this issue). Further, for some time it has been widely believed that these biological components interact with environmental adversity early in life to make violent behavior more likely in adolescence and adulthood (Beaver, Schwartz, & Gajos, ; Jaffee, , this issue; Tremblay & Côté, this issue). Research in this area has shown that among the relatively small population of human beings who come to perpetrate violence as adolescents and adults, males seem more likely to experience these epigenetic effects of biological vulnerability and environmental adversity early in life in ways associated with the male statistical preponderance in this unfavorable outcome.…”

Aggregate-level Lead Exposure and Child Maltreatment

“…Should a correlation emerge between child maltreatment and lead exposure, one possible reason for such an association may involve the neurotoxic effects of lead burden in young children (Jaffee, 2019). More specifically, the increased rates of child maltreatment could owe their existence to the neurobehavioral changes that, over time, contribute to increased aggression of parents (see, Jaffee, 2019). However, no study to which we are aware has examined the possible connection between elevated BLL and child maltreatment.…”