Adult mortality in the light of criminality, substance abuse, and behavioural and family‐risk factors in adolescence

Abstract

In their general theory of crime, Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) advanced the argument that different aspects of antisocial behaviour and health‐endangering forms of behaviour are derived from the same personality characteristic, namely low self‐control. This raises expectations of high intercorrelations between antisocial behaviour, criminality and health‐compromising activities. The objective of the present study was to examine mortality risk at an adult age (including sudden violent death and death due to accidents) as a consequence of adolescent behavioural problems and adverse home‐upbringing conditions, and further to examine whether subjects who had a criminal conviction as an adult were over‐represented among those who died prematurely. An alternative hypothesis was that disproportionately high future premature mortality among males with a record of early antisocial behaviour (and many family risk factors) is largely accounted for by a subgroup of antisocial subjects with strong alcohol and/or drug problems. In total, 7577 persons about to undertake compulsory military service, 18 years old in 1969–70, responded to questions about their family background and antisocial behaviour, and were followed up in registers of mortality, criminality and alcohol or drug abuse up to the age of 33. The results revealed that early contact with the police, truancy and school misconduct, and also the home‐upbringing variables, divorce and parents' nervous disorders, were significant predictors of later premature mortality. When future registered abusers were excluded, the prognostic power of these variables was reduced; despite this, the same indicated risk factors still had a general impact on premature adult mortality. However, adolescent risk had less impact on deaths from accidents than on other types of death. It was also found that males had criminal convictions were over‐represented among those who died prematurely. Excluding known cases of alcohol and drug abuse, there was a slight, almost negligible, increased risk of motality among males with criminal records. It is concluded that the higher likelihood of mortality among offenders can be attributed largely to the existence of a small group of alcohol and/or drug abusers who run a hight risk of dying prematurely. The generality of Gottfredson and Hirschi's theory with respect to mortality is called into question.