A high proportion of offenders suffer from some minimal brain dysfunction, according to Dr Aine O'Sullivan, a GP from Cavan. Tackling this when they first came to the attention of the authorities would be more effective than imprisonment in dealing with crime, she said.
Dr O'Sullivan was speaking at the final public hearing of the National Crime Forum, which took place in Sligo yesterday.
Jail did not deter, did not rehabilitate and did not re-educate. She quoted an English study which showed while 16 per cent of the general population had a reading age of nine years or less, this figure was 53 per cent among the prison population. Writing difficulties affected 70 per cent of prisoners compared with 25 per cent in the general population.
Neurological disorders and minimal brain dysfunctions like dyslexia and dyspraxia affected how people organise information in their heads. She said 90 per cent of people with untreated minimal brain dysfunction have low self-esteem, which was linked to anger and truancy. Some 20 per cent of people with untreated attention deficit disorder or hyperactivity turned out to have marked adult behaviour.
"A lot of these conditions could be affected by the poverty in which many people lived and the lack of adequate nutrition in pregnancy," she said.
Dr Paul O'Mahony, a criminologist, said there was a danger in medicalising the problem of crime. The evidence suggested there were social factors at work.
Dr O'Sullivan agreed: "If you have a well-heeled, middle-class mother who notices something with her child, she'll sort it out. But if you have a poor mother, she probably won't."
The problems these people had should be sorted out long before they came in contact with the criminal justice system, she said. She cited a programme in Oregon in the US which reduced recividism by 60 per cent by treating minimal brain dysfunction through a programme of appropriate exercises.
Ms Annette Dolan, of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, said the pilot schemes introduced to help children at risk should be extended on a national basis.
Mr Brian Hynes, of INTO, said an adequate psychological service was essential. At the moment if teachers identified problem children, they had difficulty in having them assessed. Ms Mary Lally, of INTO, said even when a child had been psychologically assessed the child might have to wait up to two years for a suitable place.