NCJ Number
94707
Date Published
1983
Length
86 pages
Annotation
This hearing examines the relationship between child abuse and neglect, juvenile delinquency, and subsequent adult criminal behavior.
Abstract
Four witnesses testified at this hearing. At least 1 million children suffer from abuse each year, and between 2,000 and 5,000 die each year as a direct result of child abuse. These numbers are rising. It is imperative to stop the cycle of abuse at its onset. Recent studies indicate that 75 percent of juvenile delinquents and prison inmates reported a family history of child abuse, including severe beatings, burns, strangulation, neglect, emotional abuse, and rape or incest. The causal connection is still unclear, although theories are being explored. The same kind of environment that produces child abuse produces delinquency. Parents are frequently abusive of delinquent children. The children are difficult to help. Not only do the parents respond abusively to their aberrant behavior, but often the institutions are also abusive. The only factor that is consistently different between prisoners incarcerated for sex crimes and those incarcerated for nonsex crimes is that over 80 percent of the sex offenders were sexually victimized as children. Among women inmates, most came from broken homes and were raised by persons other than their parents. Most of those who experienced sexual abuse as children had siblings who were not abused. Characteristics that may have elicited abuse have not yet been determined. Appendixes present eight articles on the subject.