The association between child maltreatment and juvenile delinquency in the context of Situational Action Theory: Crime propensity and criminogenic exposure as mediators in a sample of European youth?

Joran Jongerling,Dirk Enzmann,Majone J Steketee,Maartje PCM Luijk,Ineke Haen Marshall,Eline HJ Doelman

doi:10.1177/14773708211013300

Abstract

The current study investigates the association between physical child maltreatment and juvenile delinquent behavior in the context of the Situational Action Theory (SAT) (Wikström, 2006, 2017, 2020). Self-control, morality and exposure to criminogenic settings are proposed as possible mechanisms explaining the association between physical child maltreatment and adolescent offending. The hypotheses are tested in a subsample of the third wave of the International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD3), a large international non-clinical study on delinquency and victimization among adolescents. The final sample consists of N = 24,956 adolescents aged 12–16 years from nine West European countries. While controlling for dependence due to nested data and several covariates, the models are tested for overall offending and separately for violent and property offending. Results confirm that physical child maltreatment is associated with the main concepts of SAT (lower self-control; lower morality; and more exposure to criminogenic environments), which in turn are associated with juvenile delinquency. The models show partial mediation for overall offending, property offending and violent offending. The findings provide support for the theoretical prowess of SAT and its main concepts: self-control, morality and exposure to criminogenic settings as mediators in the well-established physical child maltreatment/delinquency link. These findings are consistent with the ‘cycle of violence’ perspective and contribute to the theoretical clarification of the mechanisms involved in the child maltreatment/delinquency link. The findings fail to confirm a ‘crime-specific propensity’. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for prevention.

Highlights

There is solid evidence that physical child maltreatment results in a wide range of problems that last into adulthood and include internalizing and externalizing problems (e.g., Adams, 2006; Edwards et al, 2003; Norman et al, 2012; Smith and Thornberry, 1995)
The current study aimed to illustrate how Wikström’s Situational Action Theory may be used to explore the individual and social processes involved in the well-studied association between child maltreatment and adolescent delinquency (e.g., Braga et al, 2017)
We hypothesized that child maltreatment would affect the psychosocial processes related to crime propensity and the socioecological processes related to exposure to criminogenic settings

Summary

Introduction

There is solid evidence that physical child maltreatment results in a wide range of problems that last into adulthood and include internalizing (e.g., depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress symptoms) and externalizing problems (behavior problems, aggression and delinquent behavior) (e.g., Adams, 2006; Edwards et al, 2003; Norman et al, 2012; Smith and Thornberry, 1995). One of the most frequently studied negative effects of parental child maltreatment is the increased chance that the child will get involved in delinquent and violent behavior at a later age (Braga et al, 2017), often captured by the concept of ‘the cycle of violence’ (Widom, 1989). This association has been confirmed in a wide range of studies and meta-analyses using both prospective and retrospective designs (e.g., Braga et al, 2017; Farrington et al, 2017; Fitton et al, 2018). There is a need to explain this frequently confirmed relationship between child maltreatment and delinquent behavior

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion