Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
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The objectives of this study were to determine relations between offending and health, and how illness and injury relate to concurrent offending--whether offending predicts health or vice versa, and whether relations persist after adjustment for childhood predictors of offending. Data collected in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development were analysed. This is a prospective longitudinal survey of 411 South London males first recruited at age 8. ⋯ It was concluded that injury is one symptom of an antisocial personality that arises in childhood and persists into adulthood. Therefore, measures that lead to a reduction in offending should also lead to a reduction in concurrent injuries. Negative relations between a range of antisocial behaviours and respiratory tract illness deserve further study.