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NEWS & COMMENT

Washington Perspective

Research on violence

Two people were slain and 10 others were injured late Friday andearly Saturday in several acts of violence. Police said so many wereinjured that they had to decide in which order to respond to calls ...The deaths brought to 403 the number of people who have been slainthis year in the District [of Columbia]. Last year, 440 people had beenkilled by Nov. 22.

Washington Post

Read our newspapers and monitor our politics and it isimmediately clear that violent crime is both frequent anddeeply worrisome in American society. Americans slay andbash each other at rates that far exceed those of otherindustrialised nations, to the point where violence is nowrated a public-health issue, as well as a traditional concern oflaw enforcement. The paucity of knowledge about theplague of violence is the main message of a newly published,unique compendium of what science claims to know aboutthe subject and where research might fruitfully proceed.Titled Understanding and Preventing Violence, (NationalAcademy Press, 2101 Constitution Avenue NW, Box 285,Washington, DC 20055), it was produced for the NationalAcademy of Sciences by a specially convened Panel on theUnderstanding and Control of Violent Behavior, chaired byAlbert J. Reiss Jr, a Yale University sociologist, with 18colleagues, mainly from academe.Basic data about violent crime in the United States are far

from definitive. But, in terms of general impressions, someof the existing information is surprising. As shocking as thecurrent homicide rate may be (9-4 per 100 000 in 1990, orsome 23 000 homicides annually, 10 000 more than theyearly toll of Americans in the Vietnam war), it’s been worsein modem times-a mean of 10-4 from 1979-81 and 9-5from 1931-34. Among European nations, Spain was therunner-up, with 4-3 homicides reported per 100 000, whileother European and British Commonwealth countries

reported cases of 1 to 2%. Though press reports convey acontrary impression, murder is one of the lesser causes ofviolent death in America, far exceeded by automotiveaccidents (18-9 per 100 000, in 1989) and slightly exceededby suicide (11 -3). The relation between killer and victim alsoconflicts with popular notions, according to the report."About half of all homicide victims", it states, "aremurdered by neither intimate family members nor totalstrangers, but rather by people with some kind of

preexisting relationship: friends, neighbours, casualacquaintances, workplace associates, associates in illegalactivities, or members of their own or a rival gang". Thereport adds that "most people’s fears of being killed bystrangers overestimates the risks; by the same token, peopleunderestimate the probability of being killed by someonewith a close or known relationship to them". Among other

findings that collide with popular impressions, it turns outthat many parts of the United States are untouched by theepidemic of homicide. Noting that "some fairly sizeablecities have no homicides in a given year", the report statesthat in 1990, 65 of 86 cities in Massachusetts with

populations over 10 000 reported no homicides, as didScottsdale, Arizona, and Irvine, California, both over100 000 population.

In violent crimes-robbery, assault, rape-"blacksconstitute 45 per cent of all arrestees", the panel reported onthe basis of national crime reports. But it emphasised thatsocioeconomic factors, and particularly the breakdown offamily units and community organisation, seem to be themost relevant factors in the incidence of violence. Notingthat assailants tend to victimise their own groups, the reportobserves, "The link between levels of social organisation andviolence is also illustrated in a comparison of military andnon-military communities. For black males, the homicidedeath rate for soldiers was only 9 per cent of the civilian ratefor the same age category...".Why, in comparison with other nations, are Americans so

violent, and can research on that question help reduceviolence? On those matters, the panelists offer little morethan wisps of clues. They accompany them with an earnestappeal for a heavier and durable government investment inresearch on causes of violence, now estimated at about$20million per year, provided by several government agencies.Summarising an extensive but often-disputed body ofscientific observations, the report notes that "research

strongly suggests that violence arises from interactions

among individuals’ psychosocial development, their

neurological and hormonal differences, and social processes.Consequently, we have no basis for considering any of these’levels of explanation’ more fundamental than others". Towhich it adds, "Because existing studies rarely considermore than one of these levels simultaneously, very little isknown about the relevant interactions".The plenitude of guns in American cities and battles over

drug territories are major contributors to violence, thereport states. But here, too, the panelists state, effectivemeans of combating these factors are poorly developed.

Elsewhere, in summarising observations about

perpetrators of violence, the report states that as children,adult violent offenders tended to display certaincharacteristics. "They are high on hyperactivity,impulsivity, and attention deficit, tend to be restless andlacking in concentration, take risks, show a poor disability todefer gratification, and have low empathy. They also tend tohave particularly low IQ scores." The report goes on to cite alengthy list of "predictors" of violence, among them"abnormally frequent viewing of violence on television,bullying in the early school years, harsh and erratic

discipline, abuse of neglect, lack of parental nurturance, lowincome in large families, criminal behaviour by family

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members, early grade school failure, peer rejection, poorhousing, and growing up in a high-crime neighbourhood".

Violence is a political issue in the US. So is violenceresearch, with various researchers, in alliance with interestgroups, wary of genetic stereotyping and stigmatising ofracial and ethnic groups. Earlier this year, the deepsensitivity towards violence research broke into public viewwhen Frederick K. Goodwin, director of the Alcohol, DrugAbuse, and Mental Health Administration, suggested thatresearch on monkeys might bear relevance to violence andsexual activities among inner city youths. In the uproar thatensued, Goodwin was forced to resign his post, but thenquietly proceeded to the directorship of the NationalInstitute of Mental Health, a move planned long before hemade the provocative observation.

In describing the scope of its study, the Academy panelstates, without explanation, "Also excluded is ethology:much work has been carried on non-human animalbehaviour that is considered analogous to human aggressiveand violent behaviour that appears quite relevant for anunderstanding of human aggression and interpersonalviolence". The discussion of animal studies ends with the

observation, "Especially noteworthy are the manybiobehavioural and behavioural studies undertaken with

primates".That scant reference to animal studies symbolises the

sensitivity of violence research in this violent land.

Daniel S. Greenberg

Round the World

Europe: Science foundation assemblyAlthough European research may lack a "parliament of

the sciences", the annual assembly of the 21-nation

European Science Foundation is heading in that direction.Chairman of the UK Medical Research Council Dr Dai

Rees, who heads the ESF European Medical ResearchCouncils group, believes that more muscle-flexing is

required, especially on ethical questions. "Research is notsetting the pace or tone on these issues. We have left the fieldtoo clear for partisan groups of one sort or another. We havegot to get our act together", he said. He was particularlyunhappy that the Council of Europe group working on aEuropean Convention on Bioethics (see Lancet 1992; 339:861-62) had been "dominated by non-scientists and suffersfrom a lack of information and understanding", leading tosome "strange" recommendations. He hoped his group’ssuccess in securing representation on the Council of

Europe’s group would improve matters. His report detailedhis group’s activities during the year which were broadlydivided between organising responses to major researchissues and supporting 6 transnational clinical collaborationsand 4 large programmes on molecular neurobiology ofmental illness, toxicology, developmental biology, and theEuropean Neuroscience Programme. The group had alsodiscussed scientific misconduct, concluding that

"experiences to date seem to indicate that mechanismsinternal to the research process do not seem whollyadequate" and that the question deserved further attentionfrom a newly established biomedical ethics group.

Established in 1974, the ESF whose headquarters are inStrasbourg, encourages research collaboration through its59 member research councils, academies, and institutions

that do basic scientific research in 21 countries. Memberssubscribe to the ESF budget according to nationalGDP-or pay "a la carte" towards ESF projects of

particular interest to them. To generate more debate at theannual assembly, delegates agreed to amend the statutes sothat it will not be necessary for each research project to besolemnly presented for formal endorsement by the assembly(when in reality the project has been stitched up monthspreviously). At the Palais des Congres, the fmal version ofthis ritual was being enacted, with a multidisciplinaryaudience sitting in polite (and perhaps baffled) silence-sociologists grappling with the Relativistic Effects in HeavyElement Chemistry and Physics and almost everybodystumped by Mathematical Treatment of Free BoundaryProblems. (Slipping off into the next room would havebrought no relief-that suite was being occupied by aplenary session of the Tibetan Government in exile.)But as in politics, so in science, European research has to

come to terms with the reality of recession, uncertaintiesabout the future of the European Community, and therealisation that integrating central and eastern Europeanstates into "a wider Europe" will be far more difficult thanexpected, lamented ESF president Prof Umberto Colombo(director of the Italian Agency for New Technologies,Energy, and the Environment) in his opening address. Headded: "With the end of confrontation and decliningdefence expenditures, we had hoped to see the emergence ofa strong trend to increase the R&D effort... across Europe.This is, however, not happening. In fact, in both the publicand private sectors, the economic downturn is depressingR&D levels". He added that in difficult times the advantagesof resource sharing and international cooperation become allthe more obvious, but instead, it was becoming harder toconvince its membership that this was precisely the momentto increase contributions to joint effort, even at the expenseof national programmes. He even suspected that the

"subsidiarity syndrome" might be influencing nationalthinking. "How the concept of subsidiarity will be definedand implemented is also of interest to ESF. The desire to doas much as possible at member-state level avoiding frequentdelegation of authority to the European centre, may alsoinfluence the attitude of our member organisations towardsESF, and even be used against... a justified ambition on thepart of ESF".

Arthur Rogers

Sweden: Deaths among orienteers

After the sudden death of an orienteer while runningearlier this month, the Swedish Agency of Health andWelfare urged the country’s elite orienteers to stop trainingand competing until further notice. This runner was theseventh since 1989 to have died suddenly either whiletraining or competing. In the four who had been tested forChlamydia pneumoniae (or TWAR agent), high antibodytitres were detected. In one of these, who died in June,necropsy revealed myocarditis associated withC pneumoniae (see Lancet 1992; 340: 427).A special committee will spend the next four months

investigating the 240 Swedish elite orienteers. "I do believethat the TWAR agent plays a part in these deaths", saidGoran Friman, from Uppsala University and head of thecommittee. "But there must be a cofactor as well, becausethis problem affects only elite orienteers and not