Adverse Childhood Experiences, Commitment Offense, and Race/Ethnicity: Are the Effects Crime-, Race-, and Ethnicity-Specific?

Matt DeLisi, Justin Alcala, Abdi Kusow, Andy Hochstetler, Mark H. Heirigs, Jonathan W. Caudill, Chad R. Trulson and Michael T. Baglivio
Additional contact information
Matt DeLisi: Department of Sociology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA
Justin Alcala: Department of Sociology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA
Abdi Kusow: Department of Sociology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA
Andy Hochstetler: Department of Sociology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA
Mark H. Heirigs: Department of Sociology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA
Jonathan W. Caudill: Department of Public Affairs, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO 80918, USA
Chad R. Trulson: Department of Criminal Justice, University of North Texas, 1155 Union Cir, Denton, TX 76203, USA
Michael T. Baglivio: G4S Youth Services, LLC, Tampa, FL 33634, USA

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-12

Abstract: Adverse childhood experiences are associated with an array of health, psychiatric, and behavioral problems including antisocial behavior. Criminologists have recently utilized adverse childhood experiences as an organizing research framework and shown that adverse childhood experiences are associated with delinquency, violence, and more chronic/severe criminal careers. However, much less is known about adverse childhood experiences vis-à-vis specific forms of crime and whether the effects vary across race and ethnicity. Using a sample of 2520 male confined juvenile delinquents, the current study used epidemiological tables of odds (both unadjusted and adjusted for onset, total adjudications, and total out of home placements) to evaluate the significance of the number of adverse childhood experiences on commitment for homicide, sexual assault, and serious persons/property offending. The effects of adverse childhood experiences vary considerably across racial and ethnic groups and across offense types. Adverse childhood experiences are strongly and positively associated with sexual offending, but negatively associated with homicide and serious person/property offending. Differential effects of adverse childhood experiences were also seen among African Americans, Hispanics, and whites. Suggestions for future research to clarify the mechanisms by which adverse childhood experiences manifest in specific forms of criminal behavior are offered.

Keywords: adverse childhood experiences; delinquency; crime; race; ethnicity; juvenile justice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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