Family type and criminal behaviour of male offspring: the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort Study.
BACKGROUND
Unstable family environment during childhood is known to predispose to juvenile delinquency.


OBJECTIVE
This study explored whether childhood family structure is associated with violent behaviour of adult offspring.


METHODS
We used a large, unselected general population birth cohort (n = 5589 males) linked with the national crime registers (up to the age of 32 years). The Ministry of Justice provided information on registered offences for all subjects. A logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the association between family type and criminality (violent and non-violent crimes).


RESULTS
We found that single-parent family "at birth" (adj. OR 3.6, 95% CI 1.8-7.0) and "all time" (up to the age of 14 years) (adj. OR 5.2, 95% CI 2.5-10.6) were risk factors for violent offences of an adult offspring. Also parental death (adj. OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.3-3.6) and divorce (adj. OR 2.5, 95% CI 1.6-3.7) doubled the risk for violence. Non-violent offences were associated only with parental death and, divorce.


CONCLUSIONS
A single-parent family of origin is strongly associated with later violent criminality of male offspring. Further studies are needed to explore the psychosocial aspects of single-parent family environment which may promote the vulnerability to violent offending in adulthood.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Finland. asauvola@paju.oulu.fi
Anu
A
Sauvola
Outi
O
Koskinen
Jari
J
Jokelainen
Helinä
H
Hakko
Marjo-Riitta
MR
Järvelin
Pirkko
P
Räsänen
D000328:Adult; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003415:Crime / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005190:Family; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male