Child Maltreatment and Offending Behavior

Abstract

Although expected, distinct gender-specific trajectories from early victimization to later offending have not been well explored. Consequently, this study assessed the association between child maltreatment (ages 0–11) and offending behavior within gender-specific models. Prospectively collected data, including official measures of maltreatment and offending, derived from the Chicago Longitudinal Study, a panel study of 1,539 low-income minority participants, Multivariate probit analyses revealed that maltreatment significantly predicted delinquency for males but not females yet forged a significant relation to adult crime for both genders. Exploratory confirmatory and comparative analyses suggested that mechanisms linking maltreatment to adult crime primarily differed across gender. For males, childhood-era externalizing behavior and school commitment along with adolescent-era socioemotional skills, delinquency, and educational attainment fully explained the maltreatment-crime nexus. For females, childhood-era parent factors along with adolescent indicators of externalizing behavior, cognitive performance, mobility and educational attainment partially mediated the maltreatment-crime relation. Implications of results were explored.

Maltreatment, family environment, and social risk factors: Determinants of the child welfare to juvenile justice transition among maltreated children and adolescents

“…Further, our finding that boys compared to girls were more likely to transition into the JJS is consistent with studies suggesting that boys are more likely to experience between-systems transition than girls (Graves et al, 2005; Ryan et al, 2013). Although we were not able to examine the mechanisms by which gender contribute to the risk of CWS-JJS transition, research suggests that adverse consequences of maltreatment among boys are manifested in externalizing behaviors (Topitzes et al, 2011) and in some instances, violent offending (Asscher et al, 2015), whereas girls are more likely to show internalizing symptoms (Topitzes et al, 2011). Boys also engage in chronic delinquent behaviors more so than girls (Miller et al, 2010), which may result to a greater likelihood of involvement in the JJS.…”

“…These findings can be attributed to gender differences in the effects of maltreatment and chronicity of delinquent behaviors. Studies have shown that the effects of maltreatment vary by gender such that boys are more likely to develop externalizing problems and girls are more likely to develop internalizing symptoms in response to maltreatment (Topitzes, Mersky, & Reynolds, 2011). In relation, the link between childhood maltreatment and delinquent behaviors appears stronger in boys than girls.…”

Predictors of depressive symptoms in emerging adulthood in a low-income urban cohort

“…Models predicting depressive symptoms were run for the full, male, and female samples. The use of sex-split models follows the approach used by previous CLS studies (Ou & Reynolds, 2008, 2010a, 2010b; Topitzes, Mersky, and Reynolds, 2011). Differential patterns of predictors by sex are widely observed in life-course studies of human development (Entwisle, Alexander, & Olson, 1997; Laub & Sampson, 2003; Schoon & Eccles, 2014), and reflect socialization differences that warrant separate reporting.…”

Gender Differences in Victimization and the Relation to Personality Disorders in Forensic Psychiatry

“…Victimization may lead to deficits in interpersonal functioning, social problem solving, and hostile attribution biases in children, which may eventually result in antisocial or violent behavior (for more elaborate discussions, see Ehrensaft et al, 2003;Thornberry, Knight, & Lovegrove, 2012;Topitzes, Mersky, & Reynolds, 2011). Evidence has repeatedly been found for an intergenerational transfer of risk for violence (Fagan, 2005;Kim, Capaldi, Pears, Kerr, & Owen, 2009) and these effects have been demonstrated to be particularly strong in children from socially disadvantaged families (Fagan, 2005).…”