Child maltreatment and criminal convictions in youth: The role of gender, ethnicity and placement experiences in an Australian population
Section snippets
Study design
The present study utilized child protection data from 17,705 young people in an Australian state with substantiated histories of maltreatment (including physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and neglect) prior to the age 18 who were born between 1982 and 1997. Information regarding placement in out-of-home care (OHC) history (e.g., the type of placement, number of placements, duration of time in OHC, and age at time of first placement) was also collected from the child protection database.
Descriptive statistics
Summary statistics for the full sample and placement only sample are reported in Table 1. Further analyses revealed that maltreated males and Indigenous young people were more likely to be placed in OHC than females and non-Indigenous young people, x2 (1) = 55.98, p < 0.001 and x2 (1) = 220.30, p < 0.001, respectively. Furthermore, those living below the 25th percentile for socioeconomic disadvantage at the time of their maltreatment report were also more likely to be placed, x2 (1) = 17.59, p < 0.001.
Of
Discussion
The relationship between maltreatment, gender, ethnicity, placement in out-of-home (OHC) and subsequent youth crime convictions was examined in this study using a birth cohort of young people from the child protection system in South Australia. Analyses were conducted using the full sample (i.e., all young people for whom cases of maltreatment were substantiated) and a reduced sample (i.e., including only those who were subsequently placed in OHC). Overall, the variables that were important in
Acknowledgements
This work was made possible through a collaboration between the University of Adelaide, Department for Child Protection and Youth Justuce (Department for Communities and Social Inclusion). The authors wish to express their gratitude to all involved in this project, in particular to Julie Petersen and Louisa Hackett.
Catia G Malvaso is a PhD student in the School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide, Australia.
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2021, Children and Youth Services ReviewCitation Excerpt :Such findings draw attention to the crossover between welfare and justice systems, with consequent negative ramifications for Aboriginal children. Reflecting the international literature in which residential care placement is an identified predictor of justice system contact among maltreated children (Ryan, Marshall, Herz, & Hernandez, 2008), one Australian study found that maltreated Aboriginal children in residential care were also significantly more likely to experience youth convictions compared with those not in care, though the impact on their odds of offending was less negative than that seen among non-Aboriginal maltreated children placed in these settings (2.7 vs 7.4) (Malvaso, Delfabbro, & Day, 2017a). Several studies also outline how a lack of culturally sensitive, competent, and responsive practice across out-of-home care and youth justice systems may contribute to poor outcomes among Aboriginal children in these settings.
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2018, Journal of Criminal JusticeCitation Excerpt :Some of these studies have estimated that up to 89% of detained or incarcerated youth have histories of maltreatment or placement (Halemba & Lord, 2005; Halemba, Siegel, Lord, & Zawacki, 2004). In Australia, a recent study reported that just over 70% of young people detained in secure care had a child protection history, defined as notifications or substantiations for abuse and/or neglect or a history of placement in OHC (Malvaso, Delfabbro, & Day, 2017a). An exception to this is the growing body of work on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among juvenile offenders (e.g., Baglivio, Wolff, DeLisi, Vaughn, and Piquero, 2016; Baglivio & Epps, 2015; Wolff & Baglivio, 2016).
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Catia G Malvaso is a PhD student in the School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide, Australia.
Paul H Delfabbro is a professor and Deputy Head of School in Psychology at the University of Adelaide, Australia.
Andrew Day is a psychologist and a professor in the School of Psychology at Deakin University, Australia.