Prevention is better than correction, suggests an English study of criminal behavior, and the key may be better training for parents. The Cambridge Study of Delinquent Development tracked 411 London males from ages 8 to 32. It found that a man was most likely to be convicted of criminal behavior if he'd experienced the following between the ages of 8 and 11:

• a broken home
• low family income
• poor housing
• antisocial parents and siblings
• poor parental supervision
• harsh, erratic child-rearing behavior
• delinquent friends
• problems in school

The study suggests that better training for the parents of young boys, as well as improved preschools, might go a long way toward reducing future crime rates.