“…Once exposed, young children absorb lead more efficiently than do older children or adults (Ziegler et al, 1978), and young children's rapidly developing brains are more vulnerable to lead's effects than are older individuals' more mature brains (Needleman, 2004). Once in the body, lead mimics calcium, impairing brain development and neurotransmitter systems in ways that disrupt executive functioning and mood regulation, which in turn reduces impulse control and the inhibition of aggressive behaviors (Cecil et al, 2008;Feigenbaum and Muller, 2016;Lidsky and Schneider, 2003;Needleman, 2004;Winter and Sampson, 2017). Through the same age-graded mechanisms, lead exposure is associated with reduced cognitive ability (Lanphear et al, 2005;Reuben et al, 2017) and increased attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Goodlad, Marcus, and Fulton, 2013), both of which are predictors of delinquent behavior in the criminological literature (Farrington, 1998;Moffitt, 1993).…”