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Criminality and ADHD
The high rate of ADHD among those incarcerated may tell us more about our penal system than about ADHD.
Mr. Trump recently triggered an uproar, similar to the one he caused four years ago, by refusing to agree in advance to abide by the voter’s decision in the presidential election. While his defenders have claimed that in this instance and many others (e. g. separation of powers, attempted bribery, emolument) he is simply ignorant of the Constitution, others have inferred criminal intent. After all, his actions led to impeachment. Before he became president, individuals filed several hundred lawsuits against him for contract disputes, defamation claims and sexual harassment. His pattern of behavior calls attention to the known connections between criminality and ADHD.
Dozens of studies find that we fill our prisons with a disproportionate number of individuals with ADHD. The calculated rates vary depending on the location, population studied, and methods used to assess for ADHD, but a meta-analysis from 2015 concluded that a quarter of our inmates have ADHD. While the majority of individuals with ADHD are decent, law abiding citizens, and I know many to be scrupulously honest, we imprison those with ADHD at rates several times greater than their presence in the general population.
