A Systematic Narrative Review of Environmental Toxins and Criminal Behavior Association

Introduction

Exposure to environmental toxins such as polluted air, endocrine disrupters, lead, heavy metals like mercury, and many other chemicals have been implicated to have potential neurotoxic effects reflected in undesirable behavior. The relationship between environmental toxins and externalization behavior including aggression, impulsivity, hyperactivity, and antisocial behavior is a multifaceted one, making causal attributions not so easy. This review is conducted to see what kind of studies were published covering this relationship, and how the interest in this topic evolved over the years [1-5].

Method

Systematic narrative analysis method is employed. The terms “environmental toxins” and “crime” were searched within “topics” of Web of Science, “abstract/title/keywords” in Scopus, and “search for research articles” tab of Springer Link, since these locations indicate an article’s focus. No date, no article type (narrative review, meta-analysis, observational research, theoretical, treatment pro tocol etc.), no research designs (correlational survey study, randomized controlled trial, quasi experimental etc.), or toxin exposure/ crime involvement age group was excluded. The results yielded 30 articles in Scopus, 715 articles in Springer Link, and 18 articles in Web of Science totaling 763 articles 750 of which screened out due to being out of scope. Springer Link returned the most populous results, since its search function does not aim at a specific part of article like abstract, keywords etc., and thus does not narrow down articles to the most relevant ones, hence the majority was out of scope. The PRISMA diagram below shows the results of article search in databases and relevant articles included in this review [6-10]. The excluded articles were irrelevant, expounding the link of criminality and use of psychoactive drugs, investigating green crimes (i.e., polluting the waters, air, and soil) or corporate crimes (e.g., gas flaring by fuel companies), or about ecological crime policies (Figure 1).

Results

Results are summarized in the table below (Table 1).

Figure 1:

Note*: PRISMA flow diagram for Environmental Toxins and Criminal Behavior based on database search dated February 2nd -4th, 2024.

Table 1: Overall review findings with prompts “environmental toxins” and “crime”.

Conclusion

The systematic survey of three large science databases yielded only 13 articles about environmental toxins and criminal behavior across 23 years. Google Scholar and ResearchGate search added 4 additional relevant articles [11-13]. Since most of the studies were based on population level statistics and not experiments, a reliable outcome proving environmental contaminants cause crime was not possible. However, most of the researchers who published on this topic had a common view supporting a powerful relationship, and they could theoretically explain their point of view with reasonable arguments [14-17].

Conflict of Interest

There is no conflict of interest regarding this review.

Acknowledgement

None.

References

• Higney A, Hanley N, Moro M (2022) The lead-crime hypothesis: A meta-analysis. Reg Sci Urban Econ, 97, 103826.
• Masters RD (2012) Neurotoxicity and public policy: Linking brain chemistry, toxins, and violent crime. In: Somit A Peterson SA (Editors), Biopolicy: The Life Sciences and Public Policy (Research in Biopolitics) 10: 119-156.
• Nevin R (2000) How Lead Exposure Relates to Temporal Changes in IQ, Violent Crime, and Unwed Pregnancy. Environ Res 83(1): 1-22.
• Stretesky PB, Lynch MJ (2004) The relationship between lead and c J Health Soc Behav 45(2): 214-229.
• Carpenter DO, Nevin R (2010) Environmental causes of violence. Physiol Behav 99(2): 260-
• Haynes EN, Chen A, Ryan P, Succop P, Wright J, et al. (2011) Exposure to airborne metals and particulate matter and risk for youth adjudicated for criminal activity. Environ Res 111(8): 1243-1248.
• Hall W (2013) Did the elimination of lead from petrol reduce crime in the USA in the 1990s? F1000Research 2:156.
• Taylor MP, Forbes M, Opeskin B, Parr N, Lanphear BP (2016) The relationship between atmospheric lead emissions and aggressive crime: an ecological study. Environ Health 15 (23): 1-10.
• Boutwell BB, Nelson EJ, Qian Z, Vaughn MG, Wright JP, Beaver KM, et al. (2017) Aggregate-level lead exposure, gun violence, homicide, and rape. PLoS ONE 12(11): e0187953.
• Brown EE, Gerretsen P, Pollock B, Graff Guerrero A (2018) Psychiatric benefits of lithium in water supplies may be due to protection from the neurotoxicity of lead exposure. Med Hypotheses 115: 94-102.
• Martin TE, Wolfe SE (2018) Lead exposure, concentrated disadvantage, and violent crime rates. Justice Quarterly 37(1): 1-24.
• Taylor MP, Forbes MK, Opeskin B, Parr N, Lanphear BP (2018) Further analysis of the relationship between atmospheric lead emissions and aggressive crime: an ecological study. Environ Health 17(10): 1-3.
• Burkhardt J, Bayham J, Wilson A, Carter E, Berman JD, et al. (2019) The effect of pollution on crime: Evidence from data on particulate matter and ozone. J Environ Econ Manage 98: 102267.
• Helton JJ, Nelson EJ, Boutwell BB, Lewis RD, Rosenfeld R, et al. (2020) Aggregate-level lead exposure and child maltreatment. J Interpers Violence 37(11-12): NP10418-NP10428
• Widom CS, Li X, Carpi A (2022) Childhood maltreatment, blood lead levels, and crime and violence: A prospective examination. Biol Psychiatry Glob Open Sci 2(3): 301-308.
• Maxwell MY, Taylor RL, Barch DM (2022) Relationship between neighborhood poverty and externalizing symptoms in children: Mediation and moderation by environmental factors and brain structure. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 54(6): 1710-1722.
• Sadana D (2023) Effects of Early Childhood Exposure to Pollution on Crime: Evidence from 1970 Clean Air Act. Environ Resource Econ 84: 279-312.