Há um romance de Greg Bear chamado Anvil of Stars . Tem um título semelhante e crianças em uma estação espacial, mas não há criminosos que eu me lembre. Veja o que Wikipédia diz:
Anvil of Stars (1992) is a book by Greg Bear and a sequel to The Forge of God. In the novel, volunteers from among the children saved from the recently destroyed Earth are sent on a quest by a galactic faction called "The Benefactors" to find and destroy "The Killers", the civilisation who sent the killer probes in the first place. The Law that the Benefactors subscribe to requires the "Destruction of all intelligences responsible for or associated with the manufacture of self-replicating and destructive devices." The book is written entirely from the point of view of a central character, Martin Gordon, who is the son of a central character in The Forge of God, Arthur Gordon.