Intergenerational continuity of crime: A comparison between children of discordant siblings.

Paternal offending has an association with offspring offending, but this is small after controlling for measured socio-economic and unmeasured familial confounders. Previous studies that did not control for unmeasured familial confounders seem likely to have overestimated the effect of paternal crime on their offspring's offending. This has implications for interventions for the offspring. If confined to mitigating the negative consequences of paternal offending, they are likely to have limited effectiveness.