Smoking mothers blamed for crime

Heavy smoking is linked to offending regardless of whether the child was brought up in socially deprived circumstances.

Experts from the Harvard School of Public Health in the United States found an increased risk for women who smoked 20 or more cigarettes a day during pregnancy.

Their study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, enrolled more than 3,700 mothers between 1959 and 1966 and asked about smoking during pregnancy.

In 1999/2000, when their children were aged at least 33, criminal record checks were carried out on the offspring.

The results showed that those children whose mothers smoked heavily were 31 per cent more likely to have been arrested as those whose mothers never smoked, and were more likely to be repeat criminal offenders.

The authors said their findings suggest that the elevated risk of offending was independent of other family attributes more common among women who smoke during pregnancy, such as mental illness and lower socio-economic status.

They said: "While we cannot definitively conclude that maternal smoking during pregnancy (particularly heavy smoking) is a causal risk factor for adult criminal offending, the current findings do support a modest causal relationship."

The authors point to plausible evidence for the biological impact of nicotine on the developing brain of babies. Previous studies have also suggested a link between exposure to cigarette smoke in the womb and a higher chance of the child having poor attention span, impulsivity and hyperactivity.

Professor Kate Pickett, from the department of health sciences at the University of York, said: "This study adds to a substantial body of evidence linking smoking in pregnancy to difficult temperament in infants, behaviour problems in children, and antisocial behaviour in adult offspring."

The study comes after other research published in the journal Tobacco Control found people who inhale smoke passively could be at increased risk of hearing loss.