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Whereas nearly 20% of adolescents have been reported to self-harm, a smaller percentage both self-harms and commits violent crimes. To identify and characterize this “dual-harming” population, investigators examined data on 2049 individuals (born 1994–1995) participating in a U.K. longitudinal twin study (49% male; monozygotic twins, 56%).
At age 18, 14% of participants reported self-harm from ages 12 through 18; 19% self-reported or, by age 22, had offense records for ≥2 violent crimes, with self-harm more frequent in females and violent crimes more frequent in males. Overall, 9% were self-harmers only, and 5% were “dual-harmers.” Compared with nonharmers, self-harmers (regardless of sex) had higher violent crime rates (odds ratios: males, …