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Early Trauma, Substance Abuse and Crime: A Clinical Look at Violence and the Death Sentence

NCJ Number
140999
Author(s)
L A French
Date Published
1992
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the relationship between early trauma (prenatal, perinatal, neonatal, infancy, and early childhood) and later substance abuse and violence, which Stuart Palmer termed a "cathartic release" in his 1960 book, "The Psychology of Murder."
Abstract
Palmer's study involved 51 men convicted of murder and a control group consisting of 51 men of similar race, cultural background, and socioeconomic status. Alcohol was often a factor in these murders. Palmer's thesis was early trauma at birth or during infancy or childhood often resulted in violence in early adulthood. Medical research has substantiated Palmer's thesis in the area of impulsive violence. When examining impulsive aggression, we now consider post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol and drug intoxication. Together these clinical disorders can produce an intense aggressive reaction that is out of proportion to the actual stressors. Thus, clinicians treating aggressive or suicidal adolescents for drug abuse are finding that a substantial number of these individuals were the victim of child sexual, physical, or psychological trauma and that drinking or drug abuse is often merely an associated feature of this trauma. Other research indicates that, like suppressed anxiety and its post-traumatic expression, drugs induce neurophysiological changes involving certain neurotransmitters. These findings suggest the need to review issues related to judicial review of aggravating and mitigating circumstances, recognizing that although some offenders may be too dangerous to return to society, such an approach differs significantly from executing them without considering clinical treatment or correctional alternatives. 16 references