Crime rates rise with temperatures

Intense heat might be causing people to misdirect their aggression.

By Jessica Silverman

Published July 7, 2009

Both anecdotal observations and crime statistics show a relationship between rising temperatures and higher crime rates, but an explanation for this phenomenon remains elusive.

According to the FBI, the total crime rate rises about 10 percent during the summer months.

Alex Yufik, a licensed attorney and clinical/forensic psychologist in Los Angeles said although heat has impact, it does not cause crime.

"There is a strong correlation between heat and crime," Yufik said. "When one factor goes up, there's more probability. There are many other factors -- genetics, low frustration tolerance, poverty, substance abuse."

Ehor Boyanowsky, a Simon Fraser University School of Criminology professor, said the sudden spike in crime is due to Ecs-TC syndrome, or emotional and cognitive stress under thermoregulatory conflict syndrome.

Boyanowsky said when people become aroused, the brain's hypothalamus kicks into gear. The hypothalamus is in charge of releasing hormones that regulate hunger, thirst, sex drive and body temperature.

Boyanowsky said as temperatures rise, the hypothalamus releases the hormone adrenaline to regulate body temperature. This chemical also triggers the "fight or flight" responses in an person. Thus, more of this chemical in the body can make it more likely that someone will become aggressive.

"It just takes little changes in the conditions of the brain -- like one-tenth of a degree -- to affect the body," Boyanowsky said. "It can affect someone's threshold."

Boyanowsky, who has studied this subject extensively, said he and his colleagues performed a heat and aggression experiment and found subjects who were aware of the temperature in a hot room were less likely to respond violently to a series of insults than subjects who had no knowledge of the room's actual temperature.

"Cognitive attention is a powerful controller of body temperature," Boyanowsky said. "People become self-conscious. In an aggressive environment, they realize, 'I'm not angry because I hate this person.'"

Columbia Police Department officer Jesse Haden said there's usually more to an incident than someone just lashing out because of the heat.

"Human beings don't just snap," Haden said. "Something came along that was too much for them."

Haden said the best way for people to avoid conflict is just by being courteous to one another.

"You need to be mindful of how you treat people," Haden said. "You really don't know what's going on in people's lives."

MU psychology professor Steven Hackley said when people are mad at one thing, such as the heat, but lash out at something else -- it fits what is called the concept of misattribution.

"Say a husband comes home," Hackley said. "He's upset with his boss, and his wife does something wrong, a small irritation, and he gets angry with his wife when it's his boss that he's mad at. He doesn't attribute it to his boss, he just thinks, 'Man, my wife's a jerk!'"

To help prevent higher crime rates in the summer, Boyanowsky said more attention should be given to the problem.

"Over the internet, on the TV, on a jet flying across the sky, 'People get angry when it's hot,'" Boyanowsky said. "'Be careful!'"