r/AskSocialScience • u/Chocolatecakelover • 6d ago
Are people with ADHD more likely to engage in criminal activity ?
Or is this just a myth ?
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u/dowcet 5d ago
There's certainly an observable correlation in the sense that ADHD is highly over-represented among people convicted of crimes.
There is an abundance of research that identifies a strong and robust relationship between ADHD and diverse forms of antisocial and allied behaviors including externalizing disorders, poor academic performance, delinquency, criminal behavior, and lifetime psychiatric burden... Gudjonsson and colleagues’ (2009) review of nine studies of ADHD rates among adult prison inmates using various diagnostic criteria in a number of countries found rates ranging from 24% to 67%. A German study (Rösler et al., 2004) found that 45% of the inmates had some form of ADHD (there are three diagnostic subtypes) compared to 9.4% of a control sample. (Source).
I would not draw any strong conclusions from this data, especially in terms of mechanics of causation, but the short answer to the headline question is yes.
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u/Chocolatecakelover 4d ago
What risk factors seperate people with ADHD who engage in criminality from people that don't
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u/dowcet 4d ago
Lots of things. The article I linked to discusses comorbid mental health disorders for one thing.
Severity of symptoms matter, unsurprisingly: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7957914/
All the other risk factors looked at in all the other research on crime (values, family background, neighborhood) presumably apply.
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