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According to a new study published in the journal Public Library of Science Medicine, persons who have suffered a traumatic brain injury are much more likely to commit violent crimes, such as homicide, than those without such a brain injury.
The study analyzed 22,914 victims of brain injury and followed these persons over a period of 35 years. They found that in the category of persons with a brain injury, almost 9 percent had a propensity for violent criminal activity, while in the category of persons with no brain injury, the violence rate was just 3 percent. The researchers also studied the possibility of a link between violent crime and a history of epilepsy, but found no such link.
It's hard for New Jersey criminal defense attorneys to tell exactly how seriously these results should be taken. However, the study is getting a lot of buzz because it includes the entire population of Swedish individuals who suffered from a brain injury or who had a history of epilepsy between 1973 and 2009.
The fact that the study includes such a huge representation of people and that these persons were monitored over 35 years, has drawn a lot of attention to the results of the study. According to the researchers, doctors who are treating a person with a brain injury may do well to conduct risk assessment. For instance, doctors must review whether a person has a history of drug and alcohol abuse and other predictors for violent crime, and include this in their assessment of the patient's recovery.
The New Jersey criminal defense lawyers at Helmer Paul Conley and Kasselman represent persons who have been charged with DUI, murder, fraud, assault, drug crimes, sex crimes and other crimes across New Jersey.
