Criminal careers because of smoking mothers - Will new research impact jurisprudence?

Well my mother smoked when she was pregnant with me and I am not a long-term career criminal.

It seems to me there would be a whole generation of criminals because pregnant women smoked during pregnancy routinely.

I agree with @marinelife. My mother smoked when she was pregnant with my sister and with me, and neither of us are criminals. My sister is a high school teacher and I’m shaping up to be a career academic. My mom having smoked may have something to do with my smoking, though.

This looks to me like a case of correlation =/= cause.

My mother smoked with all four of us and none of us were criminals. We are all law abiding citizens, with good jobs (well actually I’m laid off after 30 years with the same job), and I feel we are all pretty good people.

I just wanted to point out that anecdotes of “My mother did X but I’m OK” don’t actually refute anything unless the study states that 100% of the children of mothers who did X have such and such a consequence.

Wow, I really think that’s quite a long shot.

@crisw You are right, of course, but since whole generations of mothers smoked from WWI through the 70s, I think that is statistically significant.

@crisw is correct, of course – the study suggests that there is an increased risk for criminal activity in children whose mother’s smoked. Plus, it’s limited to pack-a-day or more smokers. And unless you have the information about whether there has been an increase in crime as those born during that period grew up – which I feel everyone assumes has , in fact, been on the rise – the stories of three individual families cannot be anything close to statistically significant.

However, the fact that the difference was the same for men and women is both troubling and convincing, at least that the study strongly suggests a link.

In terms of the legal side of things…no. The mother would never be criminally charged except with something along the lines of child endangerment, and that would have been long ago. The only thing this could do would be provide an excuse for consideration at sentencing. We only find people “not guilty” due to problems like this if it completely alters their perception of right and wrong. This sounds more like an emotional/impulse control issue – and therefore is not a guilt, rather sentencing issue.

1. Pffffffff, far-fetched.

2. It’s in the Daily Mail, pffffffffffff.

The scary part of this question is:

The study of almost 4,000 adults, who were followed until they were aged between 33 and 40, is published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.”

@iamthemob – I took it to an extreme to point to a ticking legal time bomb. Smoking mother? Guilty, but reduced sentence by X %.

I think good or bad parenting has a far stronger influence on a child. And the issue of a genetic influence on criminal behavior is still fairly open. Maybe some of you have read the book

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Twin by Ken Follett.

I’m 68% sure that most statistics thrown at us are complete random nonsense.

My mom smoked while she was pregnant with me and my brother and she still smokes around us all the time. My brother has no impulse control and I have really good impulse control.

I should be pardoned and released.

It won’t affect a thing. Genetic and childrearing conditions do not affect sentencing now, so why would they in the future for something like this? This ain’t West Side Story.

TIGER, IMITATING KRUPKE
Hey you!

RIFF
Who me, Officer Krupke?

TIGER, IMITATING KRUPKE
Yeah you, gimme one good reason for not draggin’ ya down the station house, ya punk!

RIFF
Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke
You gotta understand
It’s just our bringin’ upke
That gets us out of hand
Our mothers all are junkies
Our fathers all are drunks
Golly Moses, naturally we’re punks

If adults could blame their parents for their failures, then it would work the other way around. Parents with successful children could ask for royalties.
Whatever your parents did, at the age of majority you are regarded to be responsible for your decisions and actions.

Adults are responsible for making their own choices in life.

My parents were both chain smokers from before they even got married, and all three of us kids grew up in a smoke filled house. None of us are criminals.

I’d be willing to consider this research if it could suggest something similar to explain crime back when tobacco wasn’t consumed by people, or at least, not nearly as much as it is now.

@Symbeline – The research doesn’t suggest that smoking during pregnancy is the only potential cause of slightly elevated criminal behavior. And this research might be refuted soon by other researchers. This is how science works.