Horizontal and Vertical Transmission of Crime in Families: How Are Women and Men Affected By Having Criminal Relatives?

• In Event: Female Delinquency: Homicide, Delinquency Transmission, Hidden Crime and Justice Interventions

Abstract

Transmission of crime between family members is a longstanding societal problem. In the Stockholm Life Course Project (SLCP), we study e.g. how persistent criminality in one individual is correlated with criminal activity in the family. We found that the brothers and sons of persistent offenders are over represented in official records compared to the control group. Female relatives, daughters and sisters, only have a slightly increased prevalence compared to the control group. Our study shows, however, that the sons of sisters to persistent offenders (second generation), again, have a significantly increased risk of having a criminal record. This risk is even higher than among the sons of brothers to persistent offenders. The paper discusses how these findings can be explained in terms of male and female influence of the offspring, and what this means in terms of early detection and interventions.

Author

• Jerzy Sarnecki, Stockholm University