Future criminals are "hardwired" at eight months old by unwitting parents who don't know how to play properly with their children.
Research undertaken in Britain shows that couples who watch television or listen to the radio while they play with or talk to their babies can produce violent, anti-social and aggressive children who later turn to crime and abusive behaviour.
Dr George Hosking, a clinical criminologist, says mothers who do not spend at least 30 minutes a day, without background noise, focusing solely on their children when they are between eight months and a year old are more likely to produce offspring with criminal tendencies.
These children grow up with anti-social personalities and, at the age of 21, men are nearly three times more likely to have been convicted of two or more criminal offences and are five times more likely to physically and emotionally abuse partners.
Girls are much more likely to become teenage mothers.
"It is possible to predict who will turn to criminal behaviour 18 years in advance," says Dr Hosking, who works for Worldwide Alternatives to Violence, a charity funding work with the probation and prison service.
"There is a critical window for children's emotional development between eight and 18 months," he says.
"By 12 months if the parents have not responded to their child's moods in a positive and interactive way, the child shows signs of distress and gets labelled by the parents as a difficult baby.
"It is a downward spiral from then on. Mothers or fathers need to get emotionally 'in tune' with their babies, by responding directly and completely to their needs.
"They should not attempt to force a type of behaviour on them at this young age."
Dr Hosking, who has three children, added: "The 'mistuned' babies are more likely to display aggression and temper tantrums, more likely to start fights with other children, kill and be cruel to animals, and have behaviour problems.
"As they get older they are more likely to face early arrest and face a life of crime and violence. There is unlocked violence in many people which comes out as domestic violence and child abuse in later life."
In Britain there are more than 10 000 domestic violence assaults a year and an average of two women a week are killed by a partner or former partner.
Dr Hoskin went on: "Government policy concentrates on removing the opportunities for people to be violent, by installing security cameras, locking children up and supervising them more, but we also need to concentrate on removing the desire to be violent."
Don't be alarmed
Matthew Melmed, chief executive of Zero to Three, a charity dedicated to the healthy development of infants, said: "There is conclusive evidence that children exposed to violence at a very young age are prone to perceive other people's actions as threatening and react negatively."
Margaret Lochrie, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said that parents should not be alarmed by the four-month period when their children were at risk of life-long criminal behaviour.
She says: "The early years are very important but children's life values and social relationships are laid down by their parents in the first five years of life, not just a critical period of a few months."