Maternal Cigarette Smoking During Pregnancy and Criminal/Deviant Behavior: A Meta-Analysis
- 1 December 2006
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology
- Vol. 50 (6), 672-690
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624x06286623
Abstract
A growing body of empirical literature has emerged examining the somewhat inconsistent relationship between maternal cigarette smoking (MCS) during pregnancy and children’s subsequent antisocial behavior. To systematically assess what existing studies reveal regarding MCS as a criminogenic risk factor for offspring, the authors subjected this body of literature to a meta-analysis. The analysis reveals a statistically significant—yet rather small—overall mean “effect size” of the relationship between MCS and the likelihood children will engage in deviant/criminal behavior. In addition to being rather moderate in size, the MCS-crime/deviance relationship is sensitive to a number of methodological specifications across empirical studies—particularly those associated with sample characteristics. The implications of this modest, and somewhat unstable, relationship are discussed in terms of guidelines for future research on this subject and how existing theoretical perspectives may be integrated to explain the MCS-crime/deviance link.Keywords
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