Child Abuse, Delinquency, and Violent Criminality (From Child Maltreatment: Theory and Research on the Causes and Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect, P 707-721, 1989, Dante Cicchetti and Vicki Carlson, eds. -- See NCJ-123373)

• NCJ Number: 123378
• Author(s): D O Lewis; C Mallouh; V Webb
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 15 pages
• Sale Source: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Studies of violent juveniles and adult murderers indicate that severe physical abuse in childhood is most likely to be associated with violent delinquency and criminality when one or more specific additional factors is present.

Abstract

However, abuse alone does not usually create violent youths. The other crucial factors include central nervous system dysfunction that impairs the ability to modulate emotions and control responses, psychiatric disturbance that impairs reality testing, and exposure to extraordinary household violence between parents or caretakers. Severe abuse may cause the later violence because of the influence of the parent as a role model, the central nervous system injury resulting from the violence, or the extreme rage generated by the abuse. The relative impacts of these factors, their effects at different ages, and the reversibility of the detrimental effects are unknown, however. They also raise the moral and legal question of the extent to which violently abused individuals are responsible for their own violent behaviors. 55 references.