This study of a sample of North Carolina inmates found that inmates abused as children were less likely than nonabused inmates to be incarcerated for a violent offense.
Of the 32,856 new admissions to North Carolina prisons between 1979 and 1981, background information was collected on 18,784. Childhood abuse was constructed from a social history question concerning the inmate's relationship with his parents. The violent crime category included murder, nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, assault, and robbery as defined in North Carolina statutes. Just over 9 percent of the inmates reported experiencing abuse as children. Contrary to most other studies, bivariate analysis indicates the abused offenders were less rather than more likely to have been incarcerated for a violent offense. When controlled for potential distortion variables, this relationship exhibited no change or increased in strength. These findings should be viewed cautiously since the sample does not include nonincarcerated persons convicted of violent offenses. 50 references and tabular data.