Maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy and life-course-persistent offending.
Evidence exists documenting the relationship between maternal cigarette smoking and offspring criminal behavior. Although efforts to understand this relationship in a theoretical framework have only recently emerged, attempts made have been grounded in Moffitt's developmental taxonomy of antisocial behavior. Specifically, maternal cigarette smoking is generally viewed as a potential disruption in the offspring's neuropsychological development, which is subsequently associated with life-course-persistent offending. Using a birth cohort of 987 African Americans, the authors extend previous research by empirically assessing, prospectively, the link between maternal cigarette smoking and life-course-persistent offending while using different operationalizations of Moffitt's offending categorization. The authors' findings offer some support for the relationship between maternal cigarette smoking and life-course-persistent offending, which is dependent on how this concept is operationalized.
University of Florida, Center for Studies in Criminology and Law, P.O. Box 115950, 201 Walker Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611-5950, USA. apiquero@crim.ufl.edu
Alex R
AR
Piquero
Chris L
CL
Gibson
Stephen G
SG
Tibbetts
Michael G
MG
Turner
Solomon H
SH
Katz
D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology*; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*