It should come as no surprise to anyone that smoking during pregnancy is bad for babies. But we’ll bet you didn’t know that exposure to cigarettes in utero could set a kid up for a life of crime.
By analyzing the health records of nearly 4,000 Rhode Island mothers – including some who were heavy smokers while they were pregnant in the 1950s and 1960s – and comparing them with the criminal records of their offspring more than 30 years later, researchers found that people whose moms smoked more than 20 cigarettes a day during those crucial nine months were 31% more likely to have been arrested than those whose moms didn’t smoke at all during pregnancy. The children of heavy smokers were also 47% more likely to become repeat offenders, according to a study, published online Tuesday in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
