Macdonald Triad - Enuresis

Enuresis

Enuresis is the "unintentional bed-wetting during sleep, persistent after the age of five". The bed-wetting must continue twice a week for at least three consecutive months.

The idea that bedwetting has anything to do with psychological maladjustment, and certainly with later antisocial or violent tendencies, or plays some part in a triad of predictors, has been described as a destructive myth entirely discredited. Crime researchers acknowledge that it is not linked with later sociopathic behavior. It is not even clear that it is necessarily associated with distress.

However, some authors continue to speculate that enuresis may be related to firesetting and animal cruelty in some way. One argument is that because persistent bed-wetting beyond the age of five can be humiliating for a child, especially if he or she is belittled by a parental figure or other adult as a result, this could cause the child to use firesetting or cruelty to animals as an outlet for his or her frustration. Enuresis is an "unconscious, involuntary, and nonviolent act and therefore linking it to violent crime is more problematic than doing so with animal cruelty or firesetting".

Read more about this topic:  Macdonald Triad