Lower Cholesterol Levels in Delinquents with Affective Violent Offences as Compared with Delinquents without Violent Offences and a Control Group

Overview

Previous studies have suggested that impulsive and violent behaviour are related to alterations ofcholesterol serum concentrations. The primary aim of our study was to find out if there is a difference in cholesterol levels of criminal offenders who act in an impulsive and violent way, andcriminal offenders who act non-violently and with persons with no criminal record. The studycompares three groups. Impulsive violent criminal offenders (N=21), criminal offenders who commited nonviolent crimes (N=21) and control group included persons with no criminal record(N=21). The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyse differences in cholesterol levels inall groups. A statistically significant lower level of cholesterol was found with the group of violentcriminal offenders, related to the second and the control group. Our findings are therefore consistent with the theory that low levels of cholesterol are associated with increased impulsivenessand aggression, and that they contribute to a more violent pattern of behaviour.

Key words:
cholesterol, violence, depression, suicide, impulsivity, serotonin.