Child Maltreatment and Offending Behavior: Gender-Specific Effects and Pathways

• NCJ Number: 235149
• Journal: Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 38 Issue: 5 Dated: May 2011 Pages: 492-510
• Author(s): James Topitzes; Joshua P. Mersky; Arthur J. Reynolds
• Date Published: May 2011
• Length: 19 pages
• Grant Number(s): R01HD34294-06; 20030035; R305C050055
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD); Institute of Education Sciences; Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study assessed the association between child maltreatment (ages 011) and offending behavior within gender-specific models.

Abstract

Prospectively collected data, including official measures of maltreatment and offending, were 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 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 maltreatmentcrime relation. Implications of results were explored. (Published Abstract)