Vol. 5, No. 4, 1999 Page 1 |
Researchers in Finland have added to a flurry of studies strongly linking maternal smoking during pregnancy to criminal behavior in offspring.
P. Rasanen and colleagues studied data on more than 5,000 28-year-old men. “Compared to the sons of mothers who did not smoke,” they say, “the sons of mothers who smoked during pregnancy had more than a two-fold risk of having committed a violent crime or r having repeatedly committed crimes, even when other biopsychosocial risk factors were controlled.” However, they say, maternal smoking during pregnancy was not associated with an increased risk of nonviolent crime in male offspring.
The researchers say that when maternal smoking was combined with additional risk factors, including a maternal age of less than 20 years, a single-parent family, an unwanted pregnancy, and developmental lags in walking or talking, the risk of violent offe ending increased up to nine-fold and the risk of persistent offending increased up to fourteen-fold.
Rasanen and colleagues’ report follows on the heels of research by Patricia Brennan et al. (see Crime Times, 1999, Vol. 5, No. 2, Page 1) showing that maternal smoking during the third trimester of pregnancy is a strong predictor of nonviolent, violent, and persistent crime, and a study by Myrna Weissman and colleagues (see Crime Times, 1999, Vol. 5, No. 3, Page 7) showing a strong link between maternal smoking and conduct disorder or substance abuse in offspring.
“Maternal smoking during pregnancy and risk of criminal behavior among adult male offspring in the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort,” P. Rasanen, H. Hakko, M. Isohanni, S. Hodgins, M. R. Jarvelin, and J. Tiihonen, American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol.