A Comparison of Adolescent Inpatients With and Without a History of Violence Perpetration

Abstract

How childhood maltreatment and violence victimization contributes to subsequent violent behavior remains an understudied area. We examined 130 psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents and compared those with a history of perpetrating violence to those without a history of violence perpetration. Perpetrators of physical violence were significantly more likely to have been a victim and/or witness to family and community violence and also reported significantly higher levels of a broad range of psychopathology than nonperpetrators. Correlational analyses with the study group of violence perpetrators revealed that higher levels of impulsivity, dissociation, and PTSD were significantly associated with higher levels of violence. Furthermore, multiple regression analysis showed that symptoms of impulsivity and PTSD contributed significantly to the prediction of violence risk. Our findings demonstrate that violence exposure and childhood maltreatment are indeed common negative life events among adolescent inpatients, and that symptoms of PTSD may predispose traumatized youth toward impulsive violent behavior.