Childhood Maltreatment Typologies and Trauma Symptomology As Distinctive Contributors to Sexual/Non-Sexual Delinquency

Background and Purpose: Maltreatment is a risk factor for both sexual and non-sexual delinquency. Little is known about how specific forms of maltreatment relate to the different offending behavioral outcomes. Further, though trauma symptoms have been associated with maltreatment and delinquency, mediation pathways from maltreatment to offending behaviors considering the role of trauma have not been extensively explored. The goal of the current study was to test social learning and general strain theory explanations for delinquent and sexually abusive behavior in adolescence against one another, exploring trauma symptoms as a mediator between the four major types of maltreatment and the offending behaviors of interest.

Methods: Data were collected via paper and pencil surveys from 136 incarcerated youth at 7 residential treatment and community corrections facilities in a Midwestern state. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to establish a measurement model of the latent constructs of interest, and structural equation modeling was employed to test direct and indirect pathways.

Results: All forms of maltreatment (i.e., physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect) were significantly and positively correlated with each other. Neglect experiences predicting general delinquent offending behavior (.623(.220), p = .005), and sexual abuse experiences predicting sexually abusive offending behavior (.514(.119), p < .001). Trauma symptomology did not mediate these relationships, lending support to the social learning theory explanation for sexual delinquency. One possible explanation for why more of the anticipated direct and indirect effects were not observed could be due to the high levels of maltreatment experience and trauma symptoms present in the entire sample. Out of 136 youth participants, 120 (89.24%) reported some level of trauma symptomology, and only 5 (3.67%) youth did not disclose any maltreatment history. The higher than average maltreatment and trauma rates could have prevented an effect from being detected with a sample of moderate size. Race was only related to emotional abuse experiences, with White youth being more likely to disclose a history of emotional abuse compared with Black/African American youth. Female youth were at higher risk than their male counterparts for all forms of maltreatment except physical abuse; female youth were also less likely to disclose engaging in sexual offending behaviors, though no sex differences were observed related to general delinquent offending. Domestic hardship was related to all forms of maltreatment, indicating that pervasive economic and household instability may increase risk for childhood maltreatment. Duration of incarceration was positively related to physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, indicating that abused children receive longer sentences.

Conclusions and Implications: Future research should explore the use of proxy measures to account for the developmental facets of trauma symptomology that may not be captured in traditional measures. Longitudinal study should also be pursued to eliminate recall bias, follow youth naturalistically, and to examine causal relationships between types of maltreatment and delinquency outcomes. Decarceration of youth should be adopted to allow for community-based interventions that incorporate environmental responses, while reducing the likelihood that youth will face further abuses due to their heightened vulnerability in secure settings.