According to the findings of a research women who smoke when they are pregnant have a risk of giving birth to children who have criminal career tendencies in the future.

The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health and discovered a long term association between criminal tendencies in children and smoking during pregnancy by their mothers.

The lead author of the study Angela Paradis from the Harvard School of Public Health said, "The prevalence of behavior problems is quite high during adolescence. But there are groups who are more life-course, persisting [criminal] groups versus those who are just experimenting, asserting independence, or emulating anti-social peers."

The research not only found a strong connection between smoking by pregnant women and high criminal activities by their kids but they also noted that this inter-relationship was dependent on the dose of smoking done during pregnancy.

The research found that women who smoke more than 20 cigarettes in a day had a higher chance of having children with arrest record than women who smoked moderately during the pregnancy.