Lead and Violence
Environmental factors can cause violence–crowding being one factor. However, I’d never imagined a chemical in common use until recently could also cause violence. Lead is the culprit. Rick Nevin, an economist who has studied the effects of lead for a decade, makes a compelling case that there is a relationship between lead exposure during childhood and later criminal activity.
What makes Nevin’s work persuasive is that he has shown an identical, decades-long association between lead poisoning and crime rates in nine countries.
It is time to review literature and statistics for lead removal and decrease in crime, and increase studies on lead/violence.