Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T03:03:39.453Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Child maltreatment and onset of offending: Implications for criminal career paths

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2015

Susan M. Dennison  and
Anna L. Stewart
Susan M. Dennison*
Affiliation:
School of Criminology and Criminal justice, Grifith University
Anna L. Stewart
Affiliation:
School of Criminology and Criminal justice, Grifith University
*
School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Mt Gravatt Campus, Griffith University, BRISBANE QLD 4111, Phone: 61 7 3875 6808, Fax: 61 7 3875 5608, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Although a relationship between child maltreatment and juvenile offending has been documented, little is known about the way in which maltreatment affects the timing and frequency of juvenile offending. Recent work on antisocial behaviour and offending in adolescents suggests that young people exposed to negative childhood experiences are more likely to offend earlier in life and more frequently than those who have not been exposed to such risk factors. The purpose of this study is to explore how one childhood risk factor, being maltreatment, influences the age of onset and frequency of juvenile offending. This study used the records of an Australian birth cohort who are now 18 and who came to the attention of the Department of Families (Queensland) about a child maltreatment matter, a juvenile justice matter, or both. Children who were maltreated were more likely to offend than children without official maltreatment records and were also more likely to offend earlier and more frequently that children who had not been maltreated. This research has important implications for understanding the onset of criminal careers and for the allocation of resources into crime prevention interventions and effective responses to maltreatment.

Keywords

AbuseChildDevelopmental PathEarly InterventionJuvenile OffendingMaltreatment
Type
Research Article
Information
The Educational and Developmental Psychologist , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , 2001 , pp. 57 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © Australian Psychological Society 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alfaro, J. (1981). Report on the relationship between child abuse and neglect and later socially deviant behaviour. In Hunner, R. & Walker, Y.. (Eds.), Exploring the relationship between child abuse and delinquency (pp. 175–219). Montclair NJ: Allanheld, Osmun, & Co.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (1984-2001a). Population by age and sex (Cat. No. 3201.0). Canberra, ACT: Author.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (1984–2001b). Demography Queensland (Cat. No. 3311.3). Canberra, ACT: Author.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (1998). Population: Special Article-Experimental estimates of the Torres Strait Islander population. Year Book Australia 1998. Canberra, ACT: Author.Google Scholar
Bolton, R., Reich, J., & Gutierres, S. (1977). Delinquency patterns in maltreated children and siblings. Victimology, 2, 349–357.Google Scholar
Brown, S. (1984). Social class, child maltreatment, and delinquent behaviour. Criminology, 22 (2), 259–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Department of Families. (2002). Annual Report 2000–2001: Book 1. Brisbane, Queensland: Queensland Government Printer.Google Scholar
Developmental Crime Prevention Consortium (1999). Pathways to Prevention: Development and Early Intervention Approaches to Crime in Australia. Canberra, ACT: National Crime Prevention, Attorney-General’s Department.Google Scholar
Loeber, R., & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (1996). The development of offending. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 23(1), 12–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCord, J. (1983). A forty year perspective on effects of child abuse and neglect. Child Abuse and Neglect, 7, 265–270.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moffitt, T. (1993). Adolescent limited and life-course persistent antisocial behaviour: A developmental taxonomy. Psychological Review, 100(4),674–701.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moffitt, T.E., & Caspi, A. (2001). Childhood predictors differentiate life-course persistent and adolescent-limited anti-social pathways, among males and females. Development and Psychopathology, 13, 355–375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, T.E., Caspi, A., Rutter, M., & Silva, P.A. (2001). Sex differences in antisocial behaviour. Conduct disorder, delinquency, and violence in the Dunedin Longitudinal Study. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, T.E., Lynam, D., & Silva, P.A. (1994). Neuropsychological tests predict persistent male delinquency. Criminology 32, 101–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, C., & Thornberry, T. (1995). The relationship between childhood maltreatment and adolescent involvement in delinquency. Criminology, 33(4), 451–481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stewart, A., Dennison, S., & Waterson, E. (2002). Pathways from child maltreatment to juvenile offending. Trends and issues in crime and criminal justice (No. 241). Canberra, ACT: Australian Institute of Criminology.Google Scholar
Void, G.B., Bernard, T.J., & Snipes, J. B. (2002). Theoretical criminology (3rd ed). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Weatherburn, D., & Lind, B. (1997). Social and economic stress, child neglect and juvenile delinquency. Sydney: New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weatherburn, D., & Lind, B. (2001). Delinquent-prone communities. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Widom, C.S. (1989). Child abuse, neglect, and violent criminal behaviour. Criminology, 27(2), 251–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Widom, C.S., & Maxfield, M. (2001, Feb.). An update on the “cycle of violence.” Research in brief. Washington, DC. National Institute of Justice.Google Scholar
Zingraff, M., Leiter, J., Johnsen, M., & Myers, K. (1994). The mediating effect of good school performance on the maltreatment-delinquency relationship. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 31(1), 62–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar