Childhood Victimization And Adult Criminals Essay

This study was limited to juveniles who are protected under the law. This research team was required to sign a waiver that the participants would never be identified. Another limitation to the study is the fact that the juveniles might not be aware of the previous incarceration status of their parents.

Incidents like abuse from family members, bullying, neglect, and sexual abuse are the most common. Repeated abuse can lead to psychological damage and emotional scarring. Not only are traumatic psychological experiences causing these juveniles to commit violent crimes. Situations, where children have poor education, a household without discipline, peer pressure, inadequate role models, low income, and substance abuse coupled with the wrong environment, can lead to a life of crime. These negative influences guide these juveniles on the wrong path towards crime. However, it does not mean these juveniles cannot succeed; it is however up to the juvenile to make the correct choices in their

In this study, a group of juveniles were evaluated by completing a self- reported assessment, being interviewed by a psychologist, and having their caretaker/guardian interviewed. The authors took this information and used demographics, substance abuse, psychiatric diagnosis, interviews, standardized measures, legal history, and history of childhood sexual abuse to determine recidivism rates among juveniles. The participants were monitored and after 12 months the authors gathered the data to determine what factors were key among those who had reoffended compared to those that did not.

Abuse and delinquency have been linked together for many years. There have been many studies done to determine whether victims of abuse have higher rates of delinquency, as compared to those who have not encountered abuse. It has been found that adolescents who were victims of sexual assault were three to five times more likely to experience posttraumatic stress disorder, be abused again, be dependent on drugs and alcohol, or commit delinquent acts compared with adolescents who were not victimized (Impact of Child Abuse, 2011). In another study that was conducted to examine the relationship between abuse and delinquency, the data that was found, supported the data that was found in the study above; the authors of the study found that abuse nearly doubles the probability that an individual will engage in crime. This information was found to even be true with twins, one of whom was abused and other one was not (Currie & Tekin, 2006).

Youth who come to the attention of the juvenile justice system are often a challenging and underserved population. While not all youth who experience trauma engage in delinquent activity, and vise versa, studies have shown that youth who are involved in the juvenile justice system have found to have higher rates of traumatic experiences. The National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice (NCMHJJ) reported that 2% of all children are victims of maltreatment, 13% are victims of neglect, and 11% are victims of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse (Ford et al., 2007). NCMHJJ also reports that over 90% of youth involved with the juvenile justice system report having experienced at least one traumatic incident (Ford et al., 2007). In addition,

The 16 Year Old Killer: Cyntoia's Story is a film about Cyntoia Brown’s experience with the American justice system in 2004. At age 16, Brown shot and killed 43 year old Johnny Allen after he picked her up as a prostitute and took her to his home. Despite being a juvenile, Brown was tried as an adult and sentenced to life in prison. There was some controversy surrounding this case, considering that Brown had a tough childhood and some biological factors working against her. Some argue that she would have fared better in the juvenile justice system and that it was unfair to give a teenager a life sentence.

with Research conducted on the characteristics of female sexual abusers uses three specific case examples of young girls, ages: ten, twelve, and sixteen. In two of three case examples, the girls had reported being sexually abused at a young age. The third girl, age sixteen, did not explicitly state she had been sexually abused, but has close ties with her father who is a known sex-offender,; therefore it is believed that she has been sexually abused during childhood. A review of adolescent offenders of sexual abuse, under the age of 21, shows: “Chi-square analyses showed significant associations between those who targeted children and being sexually abused or having a family member subject to sexual abuse” The study also reports that those that have experienced sexual assault at a young age, and have been reported to sexually assault other children typically have poor relationships with peers and family members in addition to experiencing two or more instances of

…the BJS found that 4.5 percent of the nation’s prisoners, i.e., inmates who have been convicted of felonies and sentenced to more than a year, had been sexually abused in the facilities at which they answered the questionnaire during the preceding year: approximately 60,500 people. Moreover, 3.2 percent of jail inmates—i.e., people who were awaiting trial or serving short sentences—had been sexually abused in their facilities over the preceding six months, meaning an estimated total, out of those jailed on the day of the survey, of 24,700

In terms of the female adolescent offenders that have been studied, more than half report being sexually abused themselves. This tends to be a common characteristic of male juvenile offenders as well. Childhood experiences of sexual abuse have been associated with juvenile sex offending for quite some time. Rates of juvenile sex

Independent raters assessed these interviews and analyzed the probability that the child had been severely harmed. They determined that 69 children in total were classified as having experienced early physical abuse. Throughout the years, the researchers investigated the links between early physical abuse and violent delinquency and other socially relevant outcomes during early adulthood and the extent to which the child’s race and gender influenced these links. The researchers measured violent delinquency via self-reports and official court records. They also took into account official court records of nonviolent and status offenses, self-reported arrests, and romantic relationship violence when measuring non-violent delinquency and aggression. After years of analysis, the researchers concluded that individuals who had experienced physical abuse in the first 5 years of their life were more prone to and were at a greater risk of being arrested for violent, nonviolent, or status offenses. Victims of child abuse were also more likely to be found to be the perpetrator of romantic relationship violence and to have

Since there is very little research on this topic and it is one that is very controversial and lack support for or against it is a topic that is difficult to research. The hopes of this study is to examine whether or not the use of polygraph testing, when utilized as part of offender-specific evaluation and treatment, resulted in disclosures of new victims among juveniles in an outpatient treatment program. As a therapist in this field and working closely with juveniles in this area I expected participants to disclose a significant higher victim count before and during the polygraph testing than before testing. I hypotheses that this study will reveal more sexual offenses against male victims and family members. The residential treatment facility, Sequel will be the focus of this study, they use the sexual history polygraphs to assure the greatest treatment benefit.

In the criminal justice world, juvenile offenders are of particular concern. In 2014 alone it is estimated that over one million juveniles were arrested in America (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention). According to the National Institute of Justice, juveniles who begin a life of delinquency early are more likely to continue that trend into adulthood, and that once they enter the adult criminal justice system; they are more likely to become worse in their criminal conduct. While most juveniles are likely to stop delinquency by their early twenties, those who continue are more likely to engage in increasingly violent offenses. Maltreatment of juveniles is also a concern in America. In 2014, an estimated 700,000 children were referred to child welfare agencies across the United States.

Sexual victimization has become a growing issue throughout prisons in the United States. In 2011, correctional administrators reported over 8,763 allegations of sexual assault within correctional facilities (Beck et. al, 2014). 52% of these reports were sexual victimization of inmates only and 48% were incidents involved staff on inmates (Beck et. al, 2014). The Bureau of Justice classifies each sexual act that is conducted in prison by perpetrator staff or inmate and type of acts. There are currently four types of sexual victimization that occurs in prison, jails and other adult correctional facilities. These four include inmate-on-inmate nonconsensual sexual acts, inmate-on-inmate abusive sexual contacts, staff sexual misconduct and staff sexual

According to the U.S. Department of Justice “the rate of youth involvement in the juvenile system in the United States has increase and continues to grow. However, it shows that youth in the rural communities are experiencing identical delinquent crimes as urban youth” (U.S. Department of Justice, 1965-1992). The widespread and nature of crimes that is being committed by our youth are very important issues that needs behavioral modification treatment. Issues of juvenile delinquent offenders could connect to childhood traumatic maltreatment. This social problem has affected the value of life in our society, economical system, educational system, and social structure. Studies have examined issues in method, focus and how childhood traumatic maltreatment can lead to juvenile delinquency.

There are many forms of child abuse. Not only can children be physically abused, but they are also in danger of experiencing sexual abuse. In the more recent years, child sexual abuse has come to the attention of a larger part of society. As such, it is becoming more openly discussed. Child sexual abuse is a growing problem, and the stories that have begun to circulate around the world work to illustrate just how serious the problem is. Despite what society is lead to believe, the sexual abuse of a child is the least common out of all forms of child abuse. Out of the different types of child abuse, neglect is the most common, followed by physical abuse, and then sexual abuse comes at the bottom. Still, of all the cases of child abuse reported to and substantiated by authorities, approximately 15% of them concerned sexual abuse. ). It is possible that there are more cases of child sexual abuse, however, and they simply are not being reported. Due to the number of undisclosed cases of child abuse, researchers have conducted various prevalence studies over the years to determine the true number of sexual abuse of children. These studies have determined that around 20% of women and 5-10% of men in America in were sexually abused as children. A great deal of controversy surrounds the number of male victims of child sexual abuse, due to a lack of quality studies. The problem with prevalence studies is that they don 't all share the same definition of abuse, nor do they share