The current study investigates the role of race and county characteristics in substantiation and outof-home placement decisions in the United States. Using multi-level models, we analyzed data from counties in the United States available through the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data Systems and Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System to investigate the interactions between children's race and the context in which they live. Our sample consisted exclusively of children whose cases had been investigated, therefore we were able to focus on the role played by race and county-characteristics in substantiation and out-of-home placement decisions made by CPS, net of the heightened risk factors (or potential biases) that lead to disparate rates of reporting. Adjusting for state and county of investigation, Black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, and multi-racial children were more likely than White (non-Hispanic) children to be substantiated or placed out of home, while Asian children were less likely to be substantiated or placed out of home. Notably, differences across groups are far smaller in magnitude when demographic and geographic differences are taken into account. Higher countylevel poverty, percentages of Black residents, and juvenile arrest rates were associated with lower odds of substantiation and out-of-home placement among investigated children, whereas an elevated percentage of single-headed households was associated with higher odds of both outcomes. We also found that living in a rural county was associated with greater odds of substantiation, but lower odds of out-of-home placement. Important differences by race were found for these associations.

Resilience following childhood maltreatment has received substantial empirical attention, with the number of studies on this construct growing exponentially in the past decade. While there is ample interest, inconsistencies remain about how to conceptualize and assess resilience. Further, there is a lack of consensus on how developmental stage influences resilience and how protective factors affect its expression. The current systematic review uses a developmental lens to synthesize findings on resilience following child maltreatment. Specifically, this article consolidates the body of empirical literature in a developmentally oriented review, with the intention of inclusively assessing three key areas—the conceptualization of resilience, assessment of resilience, and factors associated with resilience in maltreatment research. A total of 67 peer-reviewed, quantitative empirical articles that examined child maltreatment and resilience were included in this review. Results indicate that some inconsistencies in the literature may be addressed by utilizing a developmental lens and considering the individual’s life stage when selecting a definition of resilience and associated measurement tool. The findings also support developmental variations in factors associated with resilience, with different individual, relational, and community protective factors emerging based on life stage. Implications for practice, policy, and research are incorporated throughout this review.

Youth who commit sexual offenses often have sexual victimization histories that occur in the family context. These victimization experiences can be exacerbated by other risks present in the family environment. This research study uses MANOVAs to explore how family environments including substance use, mental health, physical and emotional victimization experiences, attachment, and parenting styles differentiate subgroups of youth offenders including youth sexual offenders with ( n = 179) and without ( n = 176) sexual victimization histories, and nonsexual offenders without sexual victimization histories ( n = 150). Results reveal that youth sexual offenders with sexual victimization histories had greater risks in family environments relative to youth sexual and nonsexual offenders without sexual victimization histories. Treatment and research implications are discussed.

Polyvictimization refers to multiple forms of victimization experienced by youths. The extent to which aggregated or cumulative early life victimization increases risk of victimization within juvenile correctional facilities is unclear. Furthermore, pathways from early polyvictimization to facility victimization may be partly explained by trauma symptomatology. Drawing upon the extant polyvictimization literature, this study explores both composite and cumulative effects of childhood victimization on later victimization within correctional facilities and the mediating role of trauma symptomatology among a nationally representative sample of incarcerated youth. Data were drawn from the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement. Incarcerated youths (N ¼ 7,073) were surveyed on constructs including early victimization, trauma symptomatology, and experiences of victimization within correctional facilities. Using appropriate weights in analyses, structural equation models revealed the relationship between amassed early polyvictimization and composite facility victimization was partially explained by trauma symptoms; facility victimization also linked to trauma symptoms. Additional models revealed that as youths report more victimization experiences, there was a successive increased likelihood for trauma symptoms, facility robbery, and facility physical victimization. The relationships between cumulative early victimization and facility robbery, physical, and sexual victimization were partially or fully mediated by trauma symptoms. Research and practice implications are discussed.

There is a strong theoretical and research base demonstrating the link between attachment styles and adolescent sexual offending. However, this relationship may be best explained by deficit-based mediational pathways including criminogenic needs such as emotional or affect regulation and callousness. Grady, Levenson, and Bolder propose a framework that details criminogenic needs as intermediary variables in the attachment–sexual offending relationship. Using data on adolescents adjudicated of sexual and nonsexual crimes in a Western state ( N = 200), two structural equation models (SEM) tested direct and indirect relationships between ambivalent and avoidant attachment styles (in separate models), dysregulation including cognitive and behavioral transitions, emotional control, and inhibited/impulsive behaviors, callousness, delinquency, and offending type (sexual or nonsexual offending). Results revealed statistically significant direct pathways between variables of interest and a multimediational effect of dysregulation and callousness in the relationship between insecure attachments and sexual offending. Treatment, policy, and research implications are discussed.