Although it is a well known fact that smoking during pregnancy has extremely bad effects on an unborn baby but a recent research suggests that women who smoke during their pregnancy can affect their child in such a way that they turn out to be career criminals later in life.

Chain smoking in also associated with offending no matter how the child is brought up. Whether he is in socially deprived conditions or otherwise the affect is the same as per the findings of the study.

Researchers from the Harvard school of Public Health from the US have found out that the risk for women who smoked more than 20 cigarettes on a daily basis during their pregnancy suffered a much higher risk than those who didn't.

The findings of this research were published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health which enrolled more than 3,700 mothers during the years 1959 and 1966 enquiring their smoking habits while they were pregnant.

During the year 1999 and 2000 criminal records were checked for their children who were now in their 30s. Children whose mothers smoked heavily had a 31 percent higher chance of getting arrested for criminal activities.