Natural Justice

The research charity Natural Justice was set up to find out what causes antisocial and criminal behaviour. Their work has shown that good nutrition, which we all need for good health, can also have a remarkably positive effect on behaviour.

Natural Justice was established to improve the care and rehabilitation of people who offend, by the development and promotion of techniques that address the interaction of social, biological and environmental influences on criminal behaviour.

Since 1991, they have specialised in multi-disciplinary research into what causes antisocial behaviour. Knowing what actually causes antisocial behaviour should make it much easier to do something about treating - and perhaps more importantly, preventing - such problems.

Natural Justice may have found a way to do just that, with research studies proving that better nutrition can reduce offending. Their randomised controlled trial published in 2002 showed that antisocial behaviour in a prison population could be reduced by one third following dietary supplementation with minimal doses of a wide range of vitamins, minerals and fatty acids. The implications of this work are potentially enormous.

A major new research project began in January 2008, led by scientists at Oxford University, entitled 'Nutrition as a modifiable cause of antisocial behaviour: replication of a double blind randomised controlled trial.' This trial involves 1000 inmates at three UK prisons and will take several years to complete.

Natural Justice was honoured that their research into nutrition and offending has been presented at a Reception at the House of Lords by the Rt. Hon. Paul Boateng and The Rt. Hon Lord Waddington. It was also cited as a seminal influence on the recent inquiry into The Links Between Diet and Behaviour carried out by the Associate Parliamentary Food and Health Forum, and published in January 2008.

Natural Justice and the South Cumbria Alternative Sentencing Options were predecessor organisations of The Institute for Food, Brain & Behaviour.