Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health

Preventing conduct disorder in children can cut crime in later life dramatically, says Sainsbury Centre

23 November 2009

Children with conduct problems go on to commit four-fifths of all crime in later life, much of which could have been prevented, according to a study published today by Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health.

The Chance of a Lifetime: Preventing early conduct problems and reducing crime, shows that action to prevent conduct problems in young children can dramatically reduce their chances of offending later in life.

One child in 20 has conduct disorder, which is the most serious form of conduct problems. Those children go on to commit 30% of crime, at a cost to society of over £22 billion a year. Another 45% of children have mild or moderate conduct problems. They go on to commit half of all crime at an annual cost of some £37 billion. The lifetime costs of crime are an average of £160,000 for each child with conduct disorder and £45,000 for those with mild or moderate conduct problems.

The Chance of a Lifetime also shows that the best conduct problem prevention schemes can reduce future offending by more than 50%. Group-based parenting programmes cost less than £900 per child and home-based support for the parents of children with conduct disorder cost £4,000.

Sainsbury Centre joint chief executive Sean Duggan said: "The cost of crime related to conduct problems is some £60 billion a year. Yet conduct problems can be prevented by effective action at a young age. Pre-school parenting support for families at risk is especially good value for money. One US scheme has been shown to reduce the costs of crime by $11 for every $1 invested in it.

"In the UK, just 1% of the annual law and order budget would fund a comprehensive programme of pre-school support for up to one third of all children born each year. Early intervention of this kind will not just reduce the risk of future offending but give young children being born today the chance of a better life."

Lucie Russell, Director of Campaigns, Policy and Participation at YoungMinds, said: "This report should act as a wake up call to government to redirect resources into early intervention to tackle conduct disorder. We have got to stop the negative thinking that we can't do anything about the thousands of disruptive kids that end up inhabiting our prisons and psychiatric hospitals as adults, and start thinking creatively about putting programmes in place to deal with these problems before they reach crisis point.

"Disruptive, difficult, withdrawn and disturbed kids need to be supported and not just ignored and told off. Investing in services and support for these young people at an early age not only reduces their bad behaviour and enables them to grow into contributing adults but saves millions in future costs to the criminal justice system, NHS, education and social care costs."