Adolescent PerpetratorsChapter Six

DR GINNA BABCOCK

Introduction

• Children at risk for being victimized by family violence and for perpetrating it against others

• Research finds some forms of victimization increase the risk of juvenile criminal offending

• Juvenile offending can be seen in specific categories of crime

Family Based Theory

• Multidimensional theories address juvenile crime and child abuse • Multidimensional theories do not restrict themselves to any one major school of

thought • Consider causes and effects of family violence from a broader perspective • According to family based theories, violent behaviors are caused by the family

structure and family interactions rather than by an individual within the family

Family Systems Theory

• An important concept in family systems theory is the interconnectedness of each member who influences the others in a predictable and recurring way

• The role that each family member takes in contributing to the abuse or neglect is considered • Example: If the father is the

perpetrator, the possibility of the mother’s reluctant intervention may appear to be tacit approval, it would be explored as a contributing factor in the repeated occurrence of abuse

Ineffective Parenting

• Parents critical factor in the development of children

• Poor monitoring, low levels of positive parent–child involvement, and coercive parenting are among the practices believed to affect aggression and bullying in juveniles

Causes of Sibling Abuse

1. Overwhelmed parents—Parents who are coping with problems that are overwhelming lack the ability or energy to intervene in sibling abuse

2. Inappropriate expectations—Parents often expect an older sibling to care for younger children in their absence

3. Lack of parenting skills—Sometimes parents are ineffective in controlling sibling abuse because they do not know how or what to do

Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect

• Children may experience similar symptoms to abuse that an adult would when he or she has experienced a traumatic event

• Inability to verbalize sadness and fear • Think they will lose their caregiver • Children who either witnessed violence in their parents or experienced abuse may

learn violent behavior • May also learn to justify violent behavior as appropriate • Majority of abuse victims do not commit family or other forms of violence as adults

Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect

• Intergenerational Cycle of Violence• Resilience and Self Esteem• Childhood Abuse and Delinquent or Criminal Behavior• Childhood Abuse and Social Consequences• Childhood Abuse and Psychological Consequences• Consequences of Witnessing Family Violence

Intergenerational Cycle of Violence

• Child abuse studies find some maltreating parents or caregivers were victims of abuse themselves as children

• Intergenerational cycle of violence: abused children are more likely to become abusers themselves than those who are not abused

• Much evidence supports violence-begets-violence hypothesis, the intergenerational transmission is not clear

• Children raised in homes where they witness partner violence are at risk for developing psychological problems

Intergenerational Cycle of Violence

1. Type, degree, and frequency of violence 2. Is mother or father helpless victim of assault? Or equal participant in mutual

combativeness? 3. Role of child: calling the police, intervening physically, or pretending to ignore the

violence 4. Stability of the home otherwise and general quality of parenting 5. Child’s chronological & emotional age, stage of physical development, intellectual

functioning at the time of the first occurrence, 6. Child’s relationship with each parent 7. Degree of support to child from siblings, pets, extended family, friends, or

interested adults 8. Reaction of others to battered parent’s request for help

Resilience and Self Esteem

• Not all maltreated children grow up to abuse their own children• Majority of children victimized through domestic violence do not commit criminal acts as

adults • Research finds about one-third who experience child abuse will subject their children to

maltreatment • Theory on global self-esteem: self-image develops early in life through experiences in

childhood • Self image characterized by self-esteem may be more fully developed throughout

adolescence • Resilience: manifestation of self-esteem, thought to be one of the factors that mediate

the negative effects of child abuse

Childhood Abuse and Delinquent or Criminal Behavior

• Child victims at greater risk of becoming offenders themselves • Being abused or neglected as a child increases the likelihood of arrest as a

juvenile by 59 percent • As an adult by 28 percent • Arrest for a violent crime as an adult by 30 percent • Researchers identified relationships between child maltreatment and

subsequent violence perpetration

Childhood Abuse and Social Consequences

• Victimization of children has grave social consequences • Victims at age 29 scored significantly lower on intelligence tests and completed

fewer years of school • Problems with quality of personal relations • Higher rate of divorce and separation • Higher rates of suicide attempts • Higher incidence of antisocial personality disorder, and • Alcohol abuse regardless of age, sex, race, or criminal history

Childhood Abuse and Psychological Consequences

• Emotional and psychological problems in adulthood one consequence of child abuse

• Experiencing a physical assault or physically abusive punishment as a child associated with:• 12 % increase in the likelihood of posttraumatic stress disorder in boys, and• 21 % increase in girls

• Child sexual abuse elevates maternal depression and substance abuse • Child sexual abuse has long-term repercussions for adult mental health, parenting

relations, and child adjustment in the succeeding generation

Consequences of Witnessing Family Violence

• Children witnessing family violence is linked to:• Depression• Cognitive impairment• At greater risk for victim abuse• Impact on emotional, social

development• Men more likely to hit• Women more likely to be victims

Adolescent Offending Patterns

• Common that adolescent is both victim and offender of child abuse • High school students with histories of maltreatment experience significant

adjustment and emotional problems • Female students: risk of anger and depression, anxiety, and post traumatic stress

disorder• Alcohol abuse, marijuana abuse, hard drug abuse, and delinquent behavior for boys

and girls • Boys: three times more likely to commit crime than girls

Animal Cruelty

• Defined as socially unacceptable behavior that intentionally causes unnecessary pain, suffering, or distress to and /or death of an animal

• Ranges from toddler pulling kitten’s tail to serious animal torture• Animal abuse more likely to occur where children are abused and neglected at

home • May be associated with exposure to family violence • Sexually abused children more likely to engage in bestiality as adolescents

Juvenile Child Care Offenders

• Older children account for ~ 40 percent of offenses committed in childcare context

• Male and female offenders identified as potential abusers of children placed in their care

• Males responsible for a larger proportion of sexual offenses

Firesetting

• Juvenile firesetters: children or adolescent who engages in firesetting

• Strong link between juvenile abuse victimization and firesetting

• Abuse and neglect are risk factors contributing to a more severe course of firesetting

• Firesetting is a coping mechanism for troubled youth who have been victimized

• An association has been established between juveniles who abuse animals and those who set fires

Murder

• In the United States, juveniles were involved in an estimated 1300 murders in 2002 • Family members accounted for 16 percent of victims

Parricide: the killing of one’s parent Matricide: mother is killed by one of her children Patricide: the act of killing the father

Runaway

• Between 1.6 and 2.8 million juveniles run away every year

• Many police departments fail to report these children who run away, are lost, or abducted

• Policies and laws vary from state to state

• Runaways and prostitution are among the responses by females who are sexually assaulted

• Over 70 percent of girls in the juvenile justice system have been sexually abuse and assaulted

Sexual Offending

• Sexual offenders report they began in their adolescent years • An early target may be a younger sibling • May abuse because he or she has learned that this acceptable or may act out of

rage due to their own experiences • Juveniles account for approximately one-fifth of all rapes and one-half of child

molestation cases committed in the United States • These figures believed to be high underestimated of the prevalence of sexual

offending

Sibling Violence

• No single explanation has evolved to explain sibling abuse: rather, a combined condition has been identified

• Child is born and conditioned into violent behavior • Abuse of power generally occurs when a sibling attempts to compensate for a lack

or loss of power • Abusers perceive an imbalance between themselves and younger siblings • About 53 percent of children aged 3 to 7 have committed violence against brother

or sister

Physical Abuse

• Is defined as one member of the sibling pair deliberately causing physical harm to another

• Consistently revealed by research as the most common form of family violence• Most significant predictor of physical sibling abuse is animal abuse and physical

assaulting of school staff • Abuse may involve:

• Shoving, hitting, slapping, kicking, biting, pinching, and hair pulling• Use of broom handles, rubber hoses, coat hangers, hairbrushes, belts, knives,

guns and rifles, broken glass, blades and scissors, drowning attempts, suffocation,

Sexual Abuse

• Sibling incest: is sexual behavior between siblings that is not age appropriate, not transitory, and not motivated by developmentally appropriate curiosity

• A common misconception is that it is playful and not harmful for the younger child • Sibling abuse more common than parent abuse • Examples:

• Unwanted sexual advances• Sexual leers,• Forcing a sibling to view pronographic material • Intercourse

Emotional abuse

• Characterized by the constancy and intensity of the words and actions that express contempt and degradation

• Most difficult category to define in the sibling relationship • Usually thought to be normal sibling rivalry • Increased risk of habit disorders, conduct disorders, neurotic traits, psychoneurotic

reactions, and suicide attempts

Teen Dating Violence

• Dating violence means an act by an individual with whom that person has or has had a dating relationship and that is intended to result in physical harm, bodily injury, assault or sexual assault, or

• a threat that reasonably places the individual in fear of imminent physical harm, bodily injury, assault or sexual assault, but does not include defensive measures

• During the adolescent years one in three teens are involved in abusive relationships

Parent Abuse

• A significant proportion of family violence is perpetrated by a juvenile against parents or siblings

• Percentage has increased • Reasons for increase:

• Better training for police officers • Broader definition of domestic violence• Greater awareness of what is unacceptable behavior within family

• Children of battered women may identify with the batterer against the mother, not uncommon for the child to assault the mother

Pedophilia

• Refers to an adult who engages in sexual acts with a child as their preferred sexual partner

• Attempts have been made to legalize the practice of boy sexual relationships involving an adult and child

• Mean age of male pedophilia 28 years • 26 years old for female offenders • Have often experienced sexual abuse as children

Child Pornography

• A recent rise in the numbers of cases involving child pornography

• Commonly believed that most child pornography crimes are undiscovered

• Two types that involve juveniles:• Juvenile victim pornography which includes an

identifiable victim of sexual abuse • Child exploitation pornography which the child

is sexually depicted but no additional offense is involved