Effects of Childhood Poly-Victimization on Facility Poly-Victimization Among a Nationally Representative Sample of Incarcerated Youth

Background: Victimization research has tended to focus narrowly on a single event occurring at one point in time, despite contrary findings that youth who endure one type of victimization are likely to experience other forms and in other contexts. Given that at least one early abuse experience intensifies risk for re-victimization, and among incarcerated youth, rates of early victimization are two times higher than the general population, juvenile justice involved youth with histories of multiple victimization experiences may be at greater risk for repeated poly-victimization in confined settings. Nevertheless, the extent to which early poly-victimization experiences increase risk for facility poly-victimization among juvenile justice is unclear. This study tests the differential effects of early life poly-victimization (forms, frequency, and perpetrators) as it contributes to different forms, frequency, and perpetrators of facility victimization above and beyond staff characteristics and trauma symptoms.

Methods: This paper draws from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) sponsored research on data collected in the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement (SYRP). The SYRP is a self-report survey among pre- and post-adjudicated youth (N=7,073) aged 10-20 in juvenile facilities. The SYRP drew a nationally representative sample directly from the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement and the Juvenile Residential Facility Census through a probability proportional-to-size sample design. Youth were surveyed on demographics, facility experiences and environment, and maltreatment histories. While youth were not given standardized measures, the reliabilities for composite variables were strong. Weights and design effects were included to compensate for dependence among observations and disproportionate sampling, and three multiple regression models were run.

 

Results

The results for all models revealed a cumulative effect. Regarding the first model that tested forms of facility victimization, youth who reported three early life victimization experiences were four times (β=.40, p<.001) more likely to experience more forms of facility victimization relative to youth with one early life victimization experience (β=.10, p<.001). The model that tested the number of facility perpetrators revealed youth who reported one form of early victimization had a .09 (p<.001) unit increase in the number of facility perpetrators; yet those with two and three forms of early victimization had .35 (p<.001) and .80 (p<.001) unit increases, respectively, in the number of facility perpetrators. The final model that tested frequency of facility victimization revealed youth who reported one form of early victimization had a .35 (p<.001) unit increase in the frequency of facility victimization; yet those with two and three forms of early victimization had .67 (p<.001) and 5.87 (p<.001) unit increases, respectively, in the frequency of facility victimization.

Implications

This study supports the use of trauma screening and trauma-informed care for all adjudicated youth. Detention facilities can begin considering neurobiological and behavioral impacts of trauma and develop programming to better support youth with compound trauma histories. Even with a more recent movement towards community-based care, youth incarceration settings may not always be feasible. Implementing holistic programming; reforming the detention culture; and training and developing facility staff may be necessary actions to reduce facility victimization.