A research study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health reveals the prevailing connection between mothers smoking during their pregnancy and law violations committed by their grown-up offspring.

The Harvard School of Public Health in Boston conducted the study under researcher Angela D. Paradis and her co-workers examining data of 3,766 research participants. The study confirmed that children of mothers who smoked extensively during their pregnancy – about 20 cigarettes every day – are more likely to engage in criminal behavior that children from non-smoking mothers. Gender differences did not proof to make a difference.

"In our study, we find that the effect of MSP, while attenuated, remains after accounting for a comprehensive set of confounding variables”, the published study reads. "Coupled with research conducted on younger age groups, our data suggest that heavy MSP may have a weak to moderate independent effect on only the most serious forms of adult antisocial behavior (e. g., chronic criminal offending) that are persistent across the life-course”.

Besides evidence that smoking during pregnancy can significantly risk the health of every infant and causes severe damage to the fetus that often affect a human being in his whole life, this study further highlights psychological disorders caused by smoke.