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BBC

 

Tuesday, 25 June, 2002, 11:56 GMT 12:56 UK

 

Healthy eating 'can cut crime'

 

Prison chiefs have been urged to consider the findings

 

Encouraging healthier eating could be the government's

secret weapon in the fight against crime, according to

experts.

 

A study by researchers at the University of Oxford has found

that adding vitamins and other vital nutrients to young

people's diets can cut crime.

 

They found that improving the diets of young offenders at a

maximum security institution in Buckinghamshire cut offences

by 25%.

 

The study - one of the first to show a scientific link

between healthy eating and crime - has now been extended to

see if the findings can be applied to the population in

general.

 

Bernard Gesch and colleagues at the University of Oxford

enrolled 230 young offenders from HM Young Offenders

Institution Aylesbury in their study.

 

Half of the young men received pills containing vitamins,

minerals and essential fatty acids. The other half received

placebo or dummy pills.

 

The researchers recorded the number and type of offences

each of the prisoners committed in the nine months before

they received the pills and in the nine months during the

trial.

 

They found that the group which received the supplements

committed 25% fewer offences than those who had been given

the placebo.

 

The greatest reduction was for serious offences, including

violence which fell by 40%.

 

There was no such reduction for those on the dummy pills.

 

'Huge difference'

 

The authors described the finding as " remarkable " .

 

Writing in the British Journal of Psychiatry, they said

improving diets could be a cost-effective way of reducing

crime in the community and also reducing the prison

population.

 

Mr Gesch said: " The supplements just provided the vitamins,

minerals and fatty acids found in a good diet which the

inmates should get anyway. Yet the improvement was huge. "

 

He added: " This approach needs to be re-tested but looks to

be cheap, highly effective and humane. "

 

He said that given that nutrients were the building blocks

of the brain and its associated structures, it was highly

likely that a good diet would have a direct impact on

behaviour.

 

The study was organised by Natural Justice, a research

charity set up in 1991 to investigate the social and

physical causes of crime.

 

Its chairman Bishop Hugh Montefiore of Birmingham, said:

" The study is of great importance not only to those who work

inside prisons but also more widely in the community. "

 

He added: " There are many causes of anti-social behaviour.

But our project has shown that an important factor is the

lack of proper nutrition.

 

" The reduction of disciplinary offences by 25% among those

who took the supplements cannot be shrugged off as

insignificant. "

 

Strong evidence

 

Sir David Ramsbotham, former chief inspector of prisons,

urged officials to consider the findings.

 

" It must make sense for the prison service to explore every

avenue that might enable every prisoner to live a useful and

law abiding life.

 

" If healthy eating is part of a healthy lifestyle, and a

healthy lifestyle is a crime-free lifestyle, I hope that

they will look seriously at exploiting the evidence

presented to them. "

 

Ron Blackburn, professor of clinical psychology at the

University of Liverpool, said: " Efforts to reduce offending

usually require major resources.

 

" This research programme promises to have an impact on

antisocial behaviour with minimal intervention and deserves

full support. "

 

 

 

 

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