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Study links brain injuries and prison time

On Behalf of | Dec 19, 2016 | Brain Injury

Though experts have studied brain injuries for centuries, there is so much about the effects of brain trauma we do not know — especially long-term.

A new study suggests a potential link between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and criminal behavior. The study, released in a journal published by the Canadian Medical Association, finds that people with a TBI in their past were more than twice as likely to wind up in prison as the population at large, according to Fox News.

The study is based on a long-term study of more than 1.4 million Ontario residents who were between ages 18 and 28 as of 1997. Naturally, some of the subjects had either sustained a TBI before they turned 18, or did so during the course of the research.

According to the journal article, men with a past TBI were about 2.5 times more likely to go to federal prison than men who had never injured their brain. Brain injury seems to affect women even more dramatically; females with a TBI were 2.76 times more likely to be sentenced to federal prison.

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