Path to jail well worn if both parents pave the way

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It comes as little surprise that a lad is more inclined to make a career in crime if he's following in the footsteps of a crooked dad.

But factor in a crooked mum, and the inclination moves closer to certainty, a study has found.

Specifically, it found that criminal dads had almost a 50 per cent chance of producing criminal sons, but when mum was also a crim that probability shifted towards 70 per cent.

The study, released yesterday by the Australian Institute of Criminology, tracked six extended Tasmanian criminal families with 313 members, of which 99 males and 60 females had serious criminal records.

Where neither parent had a criminal record, there was a 75.6 per cent probability their children would also abide by the law but an 18.7 per cent chance they would stray.

Where a father, but not a mother, had a record of serious criminal offences, the probability of a son following suit rose to 48.5 per cent.

Where a son had a mother (but not a father) with criminal history, the probability of offending was 33 per cent.

If both parents had criminal records, the probability of the son acquiring a serious criminal record reached almost 67 per cent.

For daughters of non-criminal parents, there was just an 8 per cent chance of a serious criminal record. With a criminal father, it rose to 26 per cent; with a criminal mother, it was 17 per cent. If both parents were criminals, that rose to 43 per cent.

Study co-author Dr Vanessa Goodwin, from the Tasmanian Institute of Law Enforcement Studies, said many studies had pointed to the influence of criminal fathers in producing criminal sons.

"But until now, a criminal mother's impact on sons' and daughters' risk of offending has been less clear," she said.

But Goodwin said it was likely the figures underestimated all those probabilities.

Official criminal records substantially underplayed the true level of offending, especially for juveniles.

"This suggests that some form of intervention specifically targeting these families is needed to break the cycle of crime," Goodwin said.

- AAP