The maltreatment-violence link: Exploring the role of maltreatment experiences and other individual and social risk factors among young people who offend

Objective: This study investigated the extent to which violent offending in a population of young people detained in secure care facilities is related to variations in child maltreatment after controlling for other known individual and social correlates of crime. Method: Official child protection and youth justice records and survey information for 1819 young people were analyzed. Measures included: maltreatment factors (including type, timing and recurrence); out-of-home care placement factors (including type, age at first placement, stability and duration of placements); social factors (including family and peer risk indicators); and individual factors (including factors relating to intelligence and education, substance use, mental health problems, and behavior). Gender and cultural background were also investigated as potential moderating factors. Logistic regression was used to determine the independent effect of maltreatment factors on violent convictions in the presence of other risk factors. Results: Persistent maltreatment was a consistent predictor of violent convictions. Other independent predictors included: aggression, anger, Indigenous status, and male gender, with household conflict also approaching significance. Conclusion: Collaborative and integrated responses from both child protection and juvenile justice may be needed if comprehensive violence prevention strategies are to be developed for young offenders

Adverse childhood experiences in a South Australian sample of young people in detention

Empirical knowledge about the prevalence and interrelatedness of adverse childhood experiences in young people involved in youth justice systems in Australia is limited. This study examined the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences in a sample of young people who were detained in youth justice services in South Australia. It also explored how adverse childhood experiences are interrelated and their associations with violent offending. Assessment data for 2045 young people who spent time in detention between 1995 and 2012 were used. The results indicated that adverse childhood experiences were common in this population, were highly interrelated, and more prevalent among young people who had convictions for violent offences. Differences in the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences according to gender and cultural background were evident. Compared to males, females had a higher prevalence of individual adverse childhood experiences, as well as higher cumulative adverse childhood experience scores. Non-Aboriginal females had the highest prevalence for physical and sexual abuse, and household conflict, while both Aboriginal males and females reported more family criminality and substance use problems. These findings have important implications for the role of screening for adverse childhood experiences in offender populations, and the potential benefit of targeting interventions towards addressing the consequences of these traumatic experiences

The child protection and juvenile justice nexus in Australia: a longitudinal examination of the relationship between maltreatment and offending

There is convincing evidence that many young people who are in the justice system have had contact with child protection services and that victims of childhood maltreatment are at increased risk of subsequent youth justice involvement. In Australia, however, there have been few longitudinal studies that have examined these associations and relatively less is known in this area. This study examines the overlap between the child protection and youth justice involvement in South Australia, and determines how substantiated maltreatment and variations in these experiences (e.g., the type, timing and recurrence of maltreatment) relate to criminal convictions as a youth. The results show that although the majority of child-protection involved youth do not become convicted offenders, the odds of subsequent convictions are significantly greater both for those with notifications and substantiated maltreatment and for those who had been placed in out-of-home care. Multivariate analyses revealed that the strongest predictors for receiving a conviction among maltreated youth were: male gender, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ethnicity, experiences of physical abuse and emotional abuse, a greater number of substantiations (recurrence), experiencing maltreatment that commenced in childhood and continued into adolescence, and placement in out-of-home care. The mechanisms through which maltreatment might be linked with behavior are then considered, along with directions for future research in this area

Adverse childhood experiences in a South Australian sample of young people in detention

Empirical knowledge about the prevalence and interrelatedness of adverse childhood experiences in young people involved in youth justice systems in Australia is limited. This study examined the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences in a sample of young people who were detained in youth justice services in South Australia. It also explored how adverse childhood experiences are interrelated and their associations with violent offending. Assessment data for 2045 young people who spent time in detention between 1995 and 2012 were used. The results indicated that adverse childhood experiences were common in this population, were highly interrelated, and more prevalent among young people who had convictions for violent offences. Differences in the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences according to gender and cultural background were evident. Compared to males, females had a higher prevalence of individual adverse childhood experiences, as well as higher cumulative adverse childhood experience scores. Non-Aboriginal females had the highest prevalence for physical and sexual abuse, and household conflict, while both Aboriginal males and females reported more family criminality and substance use problems. These findings have important implications for the role of screening for adverse childhood experiences in offender populations, and the potential benefit of targeting interventions towards addressing the consequences of these traumatic experiences

Child maltreatment and criminal convictions in youth: the role of gender, ethnicity and placement experiences in an Australian population

A number of previous studies have shown that out-of-home care (OHC) placement experiences can influence the pathway from maltreatment to offending, and that these pathways may differ depending on gender and ethnic backgrounds. Even though Australian welfare and justice systems are unique in terms of the over-representation of Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) young people, there have been few Australian longitudinal studies that explore the role of placement experiences in examinations of the maltreatment-offending association. The present study uses linked child protection and youth justice data for 17,671 young people and aims to provide insight into the way ethnicity, as well as gender, moderates the association between maltreatment, placement in OHC and youth convictions. The data were analyzed using logistic regression and the findings varied systematically depending on the type of conviction examined. There was some strong evidence that gender, ethnicity and placement factors moderated the relationship between maltreatment and convictions in general, and for violent convictions more specifically. Interaction effects revealed that placement experiences were more consequential for female than for male youth, but less consequential for Indigenous than for non-Indigenous youth. A one-size-fits-all approach to understanding, treating and preventing the consequences of child maltreatment could not be considered the most appropriate best practice given the gender- and ethnic-specific pathways found in this study