The slayings of four schoolgirls and a teacher in Jonesboro, Ark., and two other recent incidents involving shootings by young boys has focused the nation’s attention on youthful violence as legislators debate stiffer punishments and experts strive to explain what could prompt such behavior.
Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, are being held on five counts of murder and 10 counts of battery in the Arkansas schoolyard shootings.
In October, a 16-year-old is accused of shooting at a school in Pearl, Miss., killing two students, shortly after killing his mother. Investigators linked him to a satanic cult.
Then, in December, a 14-year-old was arrested on charges of shooting at a prayer group in a school in West Paducah, Ky., killing three students. Investigators said the youth had been influenced by the movie “The Basketball Diaries,” which features a school shooting.
Neuroscientists who have been studying the biology of behavior have no easy answers. But research suggests it may be a combination of genes and circumstances that triggers impulsive aggression in vulnerable children.
The new field is called developmental psychopathology and it draws on the latest research indicating genes and environment interact to influence behavior.
Someone who has a genetic susceptibility towards violence, for example, may never become violent if he is raised in a loving and nurturing family. Indeed, he may even become a corporate president. On the other hand, another person with the same genetic predisposition can be pushed into violent behavior if, in the place of nurturing, there is abuse.
Children who are chronically mistreated, for example, are much more likely to become perpetrators of violence and crimes as adolescents and adults.
And it’s not only in violent or abusive families where children can develop behavioral problems. Inconsistent and unpredictable nurturing can also impair social affiliations and empathy.
`We’ve been making the mistake of trying to think that violent crime is simplistic, that there are simple answers like banning handguns or decreasing violence on television,” said Dr. Bruce Perry, chief of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine’s Texas Childrens’ Hospital and senior fellow of the Chicago-based Civitas Initiative.
“But the truth is that these are complex problems with multiple factors, and all of these factors converge in one area, and that is the impact of experience on the brain,”he said. “The more we know about the brain and how it develops, the better we are going to be able to devise solutions to these problems.”
Although the work of neuroscientists only provides a glimmer of understanding of hostile behavior, researchers say that two important messages have already emerged.
One is that early childhood experiences, such as physical or mental abuse, violence, neglect, lack of nurturing and fetal exposure to alcohol and drugs can dramatically change brain chemistry in ways that affect behavior.
“There’s a growing recognition that these kinds of negative experiences leave a footprint on the nervous system,” said Michael Raleigh, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles, who studies the relationship between serotonin and other important brain chemicals on aggression in monkies.
Similar changes in serotonin levels have been found in youngsters, Dr. Markus J. Kruesi, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Illinois’ Institute for Juvenile Research found that low serotonin levels in children and adolescents increased their risk for violence or suicide.
The second message is that society, including parents, teachers, law enforcement officers, the judicial system and lawmakers should heed the warning signs of children in distress at all socio-economic levels.
“This is a wakeup call for the need for more early intervention programs and for identifying children at risk,” said Dr. Louis Kraus, head of child and adolescent psychiatry at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare and chief psychiatrist at the maximum security youth center in Joliet.
“The brain adapts to its world, and if that world is violent or full of stress, then that’s what it learns,” he said. “So from being a victim of violence or sexual abuse, the brain often learns to be a perpetrator of those same behaviors. We have tended to ignore these risks to children.”
A pioneering intervention program that appears to be working is called the Child Development Community Policing Project. It is a collaborative effort between Yale University and the New Haven, Conn., police department that has been copied in eight other cities and in Italy.
Yale psychiatrists are on call around the clock to respond to children and families who have been the victims of violence, have witnessed violence, or who have committed violence.
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“The idea is that immediate intervention is the best way to interrupt what we know is the cycle of violence that can turn a victim of violence into a perpetrator of violence,” said Dr. Steven J. Berkowitz, assistant professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at Yale, and chief psychiatrist of the New Haven Child Development Policing Project.
Over the last seven years the project has been in place, children report that they feel safer and secure in their homes and neighborhoods, and that the level of violence has decreased dramatically, Berkowitz said.
But many questions remain.
Everyone has violent impulses toward other people at some time, but the vast majority never act on them. Why do some, and especially why do some children?
“All of us, whether we admit it or not, have violent revenge fantasies,” said Berkowitz. “There are children, and adults, where that line between reality and fantasy is a thin one, and they don’t quite understand the world around them.”
By age 11 children should know the difference between right and wrong. But children who resort to violence tend not to think about the future, the consequences of their present behavior.