Science fiction has become science fact, with London scientists revealing tests can predict whether children as young as three will grow up to be criminals.

In a very Minority Report-like breakthrough, researchers from King's College London believe society could intervene to give children better chances after studying a group of more than 1,000 people for 35 years until they were 38.

They found a fifth of the study group were responsible for 81 per cent of criminal convictions, as well as accounting for a disproportionate amount of benefits and healthcare.

The researchers found that this group could be accurately predicted with a 45-minute "brain health" test at the age of three.

Professor Avshalom Caspi, from the university's social genetic and developmental psychiatry department, said: "There is a really powerful connection from children's early beginnings to where they end up.

"The purpose of this was not to use these data to complicate children's lives any further. It's to say these children - all children - need a lot of resources, and helping them could yield a remarkable return on investment when they grow up."

Brain health was determined by assessing intelligence, receptive language and motor skills.

Deprivation was also found to be a major predictor of this group in the study by the London researchers and colleagues from Duke University in North Carolina and the University of Otago in New Zealand.

The high-cost group, all born in Dunedin, New Zealand, also smoked 54 per cent of cigarettes, accounted for 78 per cent of prescriptions and 36 per cent of injury insurance claims, according to the research published in journal Nature Human Behaviour.