Nutritional Criminology: Why the Emerging Research on Ultra-Processed Food Matters to Health and Justice

Susan L. Prescott, Alan C. Logan (), Christopher R. D’Adamo, Kathleen F. Holton, Christopher A. Lowry, John Marks, Rob Moodie and Blake Poland
Additional contact information
Susan L. Prescott: School of Medicine, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
Alan C. Logan: Nova Institute for Health, Baltimore, MD 21231, USA
Christopher R. D’Adamo: Nova Institute for Health, Baltimore, MD 21231, USA
Kathleen F. Holton: Departments of Health Studies and Neuroscience, Center for Neuroscience and Behavior, American University, Washington, DC 20016, USA
Christopher A. Lowry: Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Center for Neuroscience and Center for Microbial Exploration, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
John Marks: Department of Criminal Justice, Louisiana State University of Alexandria, Alexandria, LA 71302, USA
Rob Moodie: School of Population and Global Health (MSPGH), University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3052, Australia
Blake Poland: Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5R 0A3, Canada

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 2, 1-25

Abstract: There is mounting concern over the potential harms associated with ultra-processed foods, including poor mental health and antisocial behavior. Cutting-edge research provides an enhanced understanding of biophysiological mechanisms, including microbiome pathways, and invites a historical reexamination of earlier work that investigated the relationship between nutrition and criminal behavior. Here, in this perspective article, we explore how this emergent research casts new light and greater significance on previous key observations. Despite expanding interest in the field dubbed ‘nutritional psychiatry’, there has been relatively little attention paid to its relevancy within criminology and the criminal justice system. Since public health practitioners, allied mental health professionals, and policymakers play key roles throughout criminal justice systems, a holistic perspective on both historical and emergent research is critical. While there are many questions to be resolved, the available evidence suggests that nutrition might be an underappreciated factor in prevention and treatment along the criminal justice spectrum. The intersection of nutrition and biopsychosocial health requires transdisciplinary discussions of power structures, industry influence, and marketing issues associated with widespread food and social inequalities. Some of these discussions are already occurring under the banner of ‘food crime’. Given the vast societal implications, it is our contention that the subject of nutrition in the multidisciplinary field of criminology—referred to here as nutritional criminology—deserves increased scrutiny. Through combining historical findings and cutting-edge research, we aim to increase awareness of this topic among the broad readership of the journal, with the hopes of generating new hypotheses and collaborations.

Keywords: aggression; behavior; diet; food crime; mental health; microbiome; nutrition; ultra-processed foods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/2/120/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/2/120/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:2:p:120-:d:1324846

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().