1

The Connection Between Diet and Criminal Behavior

By Allyson Fronczek
 2

The first time I looked over the lesson, the title took me by surprise. Can diet really

affect criminal behavior? The article I read suggests just that. Based on the data

provided, it indeed shows that what we eat can affect our brain, which in turn affects our

behavior. Two studies were done in two different prisons to collect the data that is

presented in this article. The first study was done by Bernard Gesch and then later

repeated by a Dutch research team led by Zaalberg. The experiment included many

prisoners who agreed to take a daily vitamin, mineral and essential fatty acid

supplement or a placebo.

The results were not a solid piece of scientific evidence to prove the hypothesis but it

did give a good idea of the connection between diet and criminal behavior. While going

through the study many prisoners dropped out due to transfer or release so that

seemed to complicate things a bit. The data that was collected with the remaining

prisoners was that the prisoners that received the active supplements had fewer

violents events than the group with the placebo. The active groups violent events

dropped 34% and the events of the control group increased by 14%. This right here

explains why a modification to someone's diet can reduce criminal, anti-social, or

deviant behavior. These two studies were done about 8 years apart and the results

were conclusive to each other.

How can we prevent criminal behavior? That is always the question we are asking to

help our society, our world. Well, if the nutrients we put in our bodies can affect how we

behave and think then we should take steps to replace the unhealthy sugary, snack
 3

foods and drinks with healthier choices (that are also good brain foods) in our prisons,

and juvenile detention centers. We should go further than that with our schools if the

steps have not already been taken, especially the our low budget and schools in

impoverished areas of the world. The last study I read about was one from 1983 that

was conducted over 24 months using 3000 imprisoned juveniles. In this experiment all

of the sugary snack foods and drinks that were once available to the inmates were

replaced with unsweetened fruit juices and popcorn. “Here it was reported that there

were 21 per cent fewer serious antisocial acts over a 12 month period, 25 per cent

reduction in assaults, 75 per cent reduction in use of restraints and 100 per cent

reduction in suicides” (Prison Serv J. 2009 Mar 1; 182: 3–9.)These results were very

surprising to me and I would like to see more studies like this done in the future.

Citations:
 4

Dean,Emily 2011. “Diet and Violence: Does Diet Affect Our Criminal Behavior”

Psychology Today

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201105/diet-and-

violence

Prison Serv J. 2009. “Crime and Nourishment: Cause for a rethink?” PMC

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4693953/