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Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice

No. 241: Pathways from child maltreatment to juvenile offending

Anna Stewart, Susan Dennison and Elissa Waterson
ISBN 0 642 24282 8 ; ISSN 0817-8542 ; CRC 29/00-01
October 2002

Abstract

Focusing on the 41,700 children born in Queensland in 1983, this study finds that about 10% of these children came into contact with the Department of Families by the time they were 17 years old because of a child protection matter, while about 5% of those in the cohort had a court appearance for a proven offence. The study examines 11 predictive factors for youth offending, and finds that children who suffer maltreatment are more likely to offend. Predictor variables studied include sex of child, Indigenous status, age at final maltreatment incident, number of notifications, type of maltreatment (emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect), and out of home placement. The study finds that physical abuse and neglect are significant predictive factors for youth offending, but sexual and emotional abuse are not. Maltreated Indigenous children were also found to be four times more likely to offend than maltreated non Indigenous children.

This paper is taken from the report of research undertaken with the assistance of a grant from the Criminology Research Council.

Criminology Research Council

References