Youth Victimization

Many children are victims of violence; this violence may be physical, or emotional, direct or indirect. In certain situations, the child’s experience

Violence in any form can have a lasting effect on a person. Children who witness violence are permanently scarred because of what they are seeing. Children who witness family or domestic violence are affected in ways similar to children who are physically abused. Children are often unable to establish nurturing bonds with either parent and are at a greater risk for abuse and neglect if he or she lives in a violent home. Statistics show that an estimated 3.3 million children are exposed to violence against their mothers or female caretakers by family members in their home each year (Ackerman & Pickering, 1989). When a spouse, woman or male is abused, and there are

Throughout this essay, I am going to be looking at the topic of youth offending. I will be looking at what factors can be used as the predictors for youth offending and in particular I will be researching into how important social and cultural factors as predictors of youth offending. In order to do this, I will be looking at different sociologists theories as far as young offending is concerned and what evidence there is to support these theories. I will then conclude by discussing whether I believe social and cultural factors are important in determining youth offending.

Astounding statistics reported by the Children’s Defense Fund, “An estimated 3 to 4 million women in the United States are battered each year by their partners, In homes where domestic violence occurs, children are seriously abused or neglected at a rate 1500% higher than the national average in the general population, Between 2.3 and 10 million children are witnesses to family violence, Based on an estimate of 2 children per household, in 55% of violent homes, at least 3.3 million children in the U.S. are at risk of witnessing domestic violence each year,” (Retrieved, 10/12/2011, http://cdf.childrensdefense.org).

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,

Child Maltreatment continues to be a pressing issue throughout the United States. Over the years many children are victims of some type of maltreatment which in some cases can lead to fatalities. Maltreatment can have a negative impact on children and can leave numerous physical and psychological scars affecting the child’s adjustment not only at the time of abuse, but also into their young

There have been numerous studies throughout the decades regarding childhood victimization and how it relates to adult criminality. This report will summarize a few of these studies and compare their results in order to attempt to find a correlation between childhood abuse, neglect, or sexual abuse and adult criminals.

Trauma experienced by adolescents is an extremely prevalent epidemic that is rarely discussed. In 2003 the National Survey of Adolescents (NSA) reported that 40% of adolescents have witnessed violence, 17% have been physically assaulted, and 8% have experienced sexual assault (Kilpatrick, Saunders, and Smith, 2003). Boney-McCoy & Finkelhor (1995) conducted a telephone survey of 2,000 adolescents (ages 10 to 16) and reported that over 40% of adolescents disclosed at least one experience of violent victimization. In another 1995 survey, 41% of 2,248 urban public school students (grades 6th-8th and 10th) were surveyed reported having witnessed a stabbing or schooling within the past 12 months (Schwab-Stone et al., 1995). In 2007, a continuation of a North Carolina study was conducted and found that by age 16, more

According to the United States department of Justice, Over sixty percent of American children are exposed to a type of violence every year (Finkelhor, D., Turner, H., Ormrod, R., Hamby, S., and Kracke, K. 2009). These forms of violence can be perpetrated by a victims home, community or school, with majority of children knowing the perpetrator(s). These experiences with violence whether primary or secondary, can cause serious psychological trauma to a child and in worst case scenarios death. The 2009 survey by the Department of Justice also found that children exposed to any form of violence were more likely to engage in violence in the future and almost forty percent of these children were exposed to multiple acts of violence ( pg.2). The

The demographics of this population are broad and broken down into the categories of “victims” and “perpetrators”, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children, Youth and Families Children’s Bureau, commonly known as the ACF (2012). The ACF reported that children in their first year of life experienced the highest rates of maltreatment, with a ratio of 24.4 per 1,000 children in that age bracket, in the United States (2012). This shows that the youngest children are the most vulnerable in the target population that CAPTA serves to protect. While children in their first year are the most vulnerable, it is also reported that children under the age of three make-up nearly 25% of the population of child maltreatment and abuse in the United States, and not only were these children more at risk of being abused, but also more at risk of fatality as a result of abuse. The ACF reported that in 2014, 71% of all child abuse and neglect fatalities were children under the age of three (2012). Age is an important factor in the demographics of mistreated children; however, there are other factors that can increase the likelihood of maltreatment, such as gender and race. Child abuse rates between boys and girls tend to be similar, yet

Victimization comes in many different forms such as assault, child physical/sexual abuse, stalking, theft, rape, sexual harassment, and domestic/relationship violence. There are several negative outcomes that have been linked with childhood abuse and neglect such as neurobiological changes, emotional and psychiatric disorders, interpersonal issues and substance abuse problems (Min, Singer, Minnes, Kim, & Short, 2012). According to Reid and Sullivan (2009), children and adolescents are very vulnerable and are the most highly victimized individuals of the population and the kinds of victimization that they experience can come in many forms (Finkelhor et al., 2009). This victimization is known as poly-victimization (Finkelhor et al., 2009).

A traumatic childhood may predispose a child to violence against themselves or against others, in adolescence or adulthood. This information is and has been off the records, but so far no known relationship between the magnitude of traumatic experiences and different forms of violence at puberty. A study published in Pediatrics, which involved 136,549 U.S. students between 12 and 17 has been commissioned to evaluate this relationship. The researchers sought to determine six adverse experiences for which they had passed the boys in childhood and physical and sexual abuse, witnessing abuse or problems at home by alcohol or drugs taken by a relative. Then he saw the violent behavior at puberty: crime, harassment, bullying, dating violence,

Whenever we talk about the subject of domestic violence, the first concern that we have is on adults who have experienced it. However, little attention has been paid to children who were exposed to domestic violence. The tragic reality of a long term effects for who have experienced domestic violence is not only to adult but their children. The younger the children is the harder for them to understand violence and coping with it. Therefore, children who witness their parents being abused are more likely to growing up thinking hurting people is a way to protect themselves or that is okay to being hurt by other. According to a study, nearly “4.8 million acts of physical or sexual aggression are perpetrated against women while 2.9 million physically

Violence affects a healthy family’s relationship, state of mind and well-being, in other words, it’s normal functions. Because of violence, children are forced to endure and cope with mental, physical and emotional trauma leading to a display of impacts on health, development, and wellbeing. The effects build up over time and can impact on every aspect of their life.  How many children and innocent lives must suffer from something unnecessary? Imagine walking into a home late at night to find a child hiding in a corner, with a bloody face and cuts all around their body saying they were self-inflicted or making up other silly excuses like falling down the stairs out of extreme fear. Up to 75% of all acts of domestic violence occurs between the ages 18-24. No child should ever see domestic violence as normal because the moment that happens a future perpetrator has been born. We need to take a stand and refuse to let domestic violence become something we ignore.

Domestic violence affects 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men (NCADV, 2015). Although the devastating effects that domestic violence has on women are well known, there is a population of domestic violence victims that we tend to overlook. These are the children of the women and men who are in domestic violence situations. Children are the invisible victims when it comes to domestic violence. There are many statistics being thrown around when it comes to the number of children who are exposed to domestic violence; they range from as little as 200,000 to even 3-18 million (Sousa et. al., 2011). A 2001 study discovered that in 75% of the cases in their study, children were present in the home during the assaults (Hutchison & Hirschel, 2001).