The relationship between head injury, gender and offending in Scottish prisoners and a systematic review of the evidence for Third Wave Therapy Interventions for Traumatic Brain Injury

Background: Head Injury (HI) is twice as high in prisoners, compared to the general population (McMillan et al., 2019) and is considered a risk factor for offending (Colantonio et al., 2014), violent offending and an earlier age of offending (Williams et al., 2018). There is currently very little research considering HI and gender differences and the impact on offending. Aims: To investigate gender differences in offending, including number of convictions and violent offending in prisoners with HI. Secondary aims include investigating whether age at first HI is associated with risk of offending and differences in mental health, including depression, anxiety and substance use. Method: Secondary data analysis of a study with a retrospective, cross-sectional design; 200 prisoners (101 females and 99 males) were recruited from five Scottish prisons. Participants completed self-report measures, such as the OSU-TBI ID and a measure to gather information on offending history and mental health. Results: Seventy percent of the sample had a significant HI. There was no significant association between gender and HI or gender and the age of first HI with LoC. Males had more convictions (U=3295.0, z = -3.903, p= .001). HI predicted the number of convictions, (OR: 1.70, 95% CI 1.16, 2.46, p= .006), with males having more convictions and being 2.45 times more likely to report a violent offence compared to females (OR: 2.45, 95% CI 1.03, 5.81, p= .042). An interaction was present between depression, anxiety and number of convictions for males. Conclusions: HI was associated with offending and males had more involvement with the CJS. Males with depression had double the number of convictions and this was similar for anxiety. Interventions may be paramount in improving mental health