Unraveling the Link between Trauma and Male Delinquency: The Cumulative Versus Differential Risk Perspectives

Within the social work, mental health, and criminal justice fields, researchers generally agree that trauma places youths at risk of juvenile delinquency. Proponents of the developmental and cumulative risk theoretical models (Cichetti & Carlson, 1989; Rutter, 1985, 1987) disagree, however, about whether it is a specific risk factor or an accumulation of risk factors that produces an adverse outcome, such as delinquency. Developmental theory suggests that youths who have experienced a traumatic event of sufficient magnitude, such as child physical abuse, may experience long-term, negative consequences--psychological, social, and behavioral--that continue and sometimes worsen in adolescence and adulthood (Dodge, Bates, & Pettit, 1990; Lemmon, 1999; Perez, 2001; Widom, 1989a). Research has shown that 50 percent to 79 percent of male victims of child maltreatment, whose abuse occurred before age 12, later became involved in serious juvenile delinquency (Lemmon; Stouthamer-Loeber, Wei, Homish,& Loeber, 2002). In contrast, cumulative risk theory suggests that youths who experience an accumulation of negative or stressful life events, such as parental divorce or school suspension, increase their risk of engaging in juvenile delinquency (Agnew, 2002; Eitle & Turner, 2002; Garmezy & Masten, 1994; Hoffman & Cerbone, 1999; Ireland, Smith, & Thornberry, 2002). Although both differential and cumulative effects of trauma have been linked to youths' antisocial behavior, researchers generally have investigated these effects independently. Broadly defined, trauma in this regard refers to being a victim of violence, being a witness to violence, or experiencing stressful life events. Of the three types of trauma, research on child maltreatment and witnessing violence has mainly adopted a developmental approach, and research on stressful life events has adopted a cumulative risk approach. Child maltreatment, often defined as being a victim of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect that occurs before age 12, is positively related to adolescent and adult criminality (Falshaw, Browne, & Hollin, 1996; Haapsalo & Pokela, 1999; Lemmon, 1999; Widom, 1989a; Zingraff, Leiter, & Myers, & Johnsen, 1993). First-generation studies on the child maltreatment-delinquency connection, conducted between 1950 and 1988, generally found that youths who were maltreated in childhood were at greater risk of engaging in illegal behavior, especially violent behavior (Widom, 1989a). A causal link, however, cannot be drawn from these early studies because of their methodological limitations, such as the use of cross-sectional retrospective designs, small sample sizes, a lack of comparison groups, differing definitions and data collection methods, and failure to control for confounding variables (Widom, 1989b). Later research, however, provided stronger evidence of a causal relationship between being abused as a child and adolescent delinquency. Second-generation studies conducted after 1988 used prospective longitudinal designs, comparison groups, and control variables. For example, in Widom's (1989b) classic study, the maltreated group was more likely to have had official juvenile and adult criminal offenses, including violent offenses, than the comparison group. Of all the subtypes of maltreatment, physical abuse had the strongest relationship to violent crime later in life. Although advancing our understanding of the problem, many second-generation studies were still confounded by other methodological issues. For example, they did not control for other adverse experiences, such as witnessing violence or experiencing stressful life events, or victimization that occurred after age 12. An exception, Ireland and colleagues (2002) controlled for lifetime adverse experiences and found a relationship between youths who were victimized in both childhood and adolescence or adolescence only and delinquency. However, no significant relationship was found between youths who experienced childhood maltreatment only and delinquency. …