Predictors of female criminality: findings from the Northern Finland 1966 birth cohort.
OBJECTIVE
Females still commit fewer criminal offenses than males, but the percentage of female offending has been increasing during the past few decades. Thus there is a need for original studies into the perinatal contribution to the etiology of female offending.


METHODS
A large, prospectively collected birth cohort database of female members (N = 5,056) was available. Information on perinatal biological and psychosocial risks as well as data from the National Crime Registers up to 32 years of age were collected and analyzed by logistic regression and a chi2 automatic interaction detection (CHAID) analysis.


RESULTS
The absence of the father during childhood was the strongest risk factor in predicting female criminality (odds ratio 2.5; 95% confidence interval 1.4-4.3). Furthermore, in the families in which the father was present, maternal smoking during pregnancy together with being born unwanted correlated with an increased prevalence of criminal offending significantly up to 7.2%.


CONCLUSIONS
CHAID analysis proved to be a useful statistical method in predicting female adult criminality after preceding perinatal risks. It revealed that the risk factors were mainly familial, the paternal factor being the most important one in determining the probability of daughters committing criminal offenses.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Finland. liisa.kemppainen@oulu.fi
Liisa
L
Kemppainen
Jari
J
Jokelainen
Matti
M
Isohanni
Marjo-Riitta
MR
Järvelin
Pirkko
P
Räsänen
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003415:Crime / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D012307:Risk Factors