Criminal offending and the family environment : Swedish national high-risk home-reared and adopted-away co-sibling control study
(2016) In British Journal of Psychiatry 209(4). p.294-299- Abstract
Background: Criminal offending is strongly transmitted across generations. Aims: To clarify the contribution of rearing environment to crossgenerational transmission of crime. Method: Using Swedish national registries, we identified 1176 fullsibling and 3085 half-sibling sets from high-risk families where at least one sibling was adopted and the other raised by the biological parents. Results: Risk for criminal conviction was substantially lower in the fulland half-siblings who were adopted v. home-reared (hazard ratios (HR)= 0.56, 95% CI 0.50-0.64 and 0.60, 95% CI 0.56-0.65, respectively). The protective effect of adoption was significantly stronger in sibships with two v. one high-risk parent. Conclusions: Using matched high-risk... (More)
Background: Criminal offending is strongly transmitted across generations. Aims: To clarify the contribution of rearing environment to crossgenerational transmission of crime. Method: Using Swedish national registries, we identified 1176 fullsibling and 3085 half-sibling sets from high-risk families where at least one sibling was adopted and the other raised by the biological parents. Results: Risk for criminal conviction was substantially lower in the fulland half-siblings who were adopted v. home-reared (hazard ratios (HR)= 0.56, 95% CI 0.50-0.64 and 0.60, 95% CI 0.56-0.65, respectively). The protective effect of adoption was significantly stronger in sibships with two v. one high-risk parent. Conclusions: Using matched high-risk full- and half-siblings, we found replicated evidence that (a) rearing environment has a strong impact on risk for criminal conviction, (b) high-quality rearing environments have especially strong effects in those at high familial risk for criminal offending and (c) the protective effects of adoption are stronger for more severe crimes and for repeated offending.
(Less)
- author
- Kendler, Kenneth S. ; Morris, Nancy A. ; Ohlsson, Henrik LU ; Lönn, Sara Larsson LU ; Sundquist, Jan LU and Sundquist, Kristina LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2016-10-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- British Journal of Psychiatry
- volume
- 209
- issue
- 4
- pages
- 6 pages
- publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:84991819008
- pmid:27539295
- wos:000384966100006
- ISSN
- 0007-1250
- DOI
- 10.1192/bjp.bp.114.159558
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- a97c3b1a-c4fc-45ee-8f83-a6274d94f1f4
- date added to LUP
- 2016-11-16 12:22:41
- date last changed
- 2024-06-29 21:31:24
@article{a97c3b1a-c4fc-45ee-8f83-a6274d94f1f4,
abstract = {{<p>Background: Criminal offending is strongly transmitted across generations. Aims: To clarify the contribution of rearing environment to crossgenerational transmission of crime. Method: Using Swedish national registries, we identified 1176 fullsibling and 3085 half-sibling sets from high-risk families where at least one sibling was adopted and the other raised by the biological parents. Results: Risk for criminal conviction was substantially lower in the fulland half-siblings who were adopted v. home-reared (hazard ratios (HR)= 0.56, 95% CI 0.50-0.64 and 0.60, 95% CI 0.56-0.65, respectively). The protective effect of adoption was significantly stronger in sibships with two v. one high-risk parent. Conclusions: Using matched high-risk full- and half-siblings, we found replicated evidence that (a) rearing environment has a strong impact on risk for criminal conviction, (b) high-quality rearing environments have especially strong effects in those at high familial risk for criminal offending and (c) the protective effects of adoption are stronger for more severe crimes and for repeated offending.</p>}},
author = {{Kendler, Kenneth S. and Morris, Nancy A. and Ohlsson, Henrik and Lönn, Sara Larsson and Sundquist, Jan and Sundquist, Kristina}},
issn = {{0007-1250}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{10}},
number = {{4}},
pages = {{294--299}},
publisher = {{Cambridge University Press}},
series = {{British Journal of Psychiatry}},
title = {{Criminal offending and the family environment : Swedish national high-risk home-reared and adopted-away co-sibling control study}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.114.159558}},
doi = {{10.1192/bjp.bp.114.159558}},
volume = {{209}},
year = {{2016}},
}