Study Investigates What Traits Make a Kid a Future Killer
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iStock/Thinkstock(DALLAS) — Is there any reliable way to predict whether a child will grow up to be a murderer?
Alex Piquero, a University of Texas at Dallas criminologist, says trying to figuring that out is extremely difficult.
About the only two factors that many killers have in common is that their IQ is usually lower than other criminals and they were generally exposed to extreme violence at some point in their lives.
Piquero says in studying 1,350 serious juvenile offenders who mostly committed felony crime, the average IQ of the 18 convicted of murder was 79 compared to 85 for the others. The young killers were also more apt to witness a crime such as assault or rape.
However, Piquero contends that so-called risk factors such as drug use or mental illness are not good indicators of whether a juvenile will turn into a murderer because so many young criminals also have these problems.
Murder, he concludes, is usually driven by the situation.
Piquero says the best way of dealing with the problem is by improving education and lowering neighborhood violence.
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