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

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.12.001Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Gender, ethnicity and placement factors moderate the relationship between maltreatment and convictions.

  • Placement experiences are more consequential in the offending behavior of females.

  • Placement experiences are less consequential in the offending behavior of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people.

Abstract

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.

Section snippets

Study design

The present study utilized child protection data from 17,705 young people in an Australian state with substantiated histories of maltreatment (including physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and neglect) prior to the age 18 who were born between 1982 and 1997. Information regarding placement in out-of-home care (OHC) history (e.g., the type of placement, number of placements, duration of time in OHC, and age at time of first placement) was also collected from the child protection database.

Descriptive statistics

Summary statistics for the full sample and placement only sample are reported in Table 1. Further analyses revealed that maltreated males and Indigenous young people were more likely to be placed in OHC than females and non-Indigenous young people, x2 (1) = 55.98, p < 0.001 and x2 (1) = 220.30, p < 0.001, respectively. Furthermore, those living below the 25th percentile for socioeconomic disadvantage at the time of their maltreatment report were also more likely to be placed, x2 (1) = 17.59, p < 0.001.

Of

Discussion

The relationship between maltreatment, gender, ethnicity, placement in out-of-home (OHC) and subsequent youth crime convictions was examined in this study using a birth cohort of young people from the child protection system in South Australia. Analyses were conducted using the full sample (i.e., all young people for whom cases of maltreatment were substantiated) and a reduced sample (i.e., including only those who were subsequently placed in OHC). Overall, the variables that were important in

Acknowledgements

This work was made possible through a collaboration between the University of Adelaide, Department for Child Protection and Youth Justuce (Department for Communities and Social Inclusion). The authors wish to express their gratitude to all involved in this project, in particular to Julie Petersen and Louisa Hackett.

Catia G Malvaso is a PhD student in the School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide, Australia.

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    Catia G Malvaso is a PhD student in the School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide, Australia.

    Paul H Delfabbro is a professor and Deputy Head of School in Psychology at the University of Adelaide, Australia.

    Andrew Day is a psychologist and a professor in the School of Psychology at Deakin University, Australia.

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