Adverse Childhood Experiences Framework Research Articles

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Criminal Extremity: New Evidence for Sexual Homicide.

Adverse childhood experiences are associated with a wide range of behavioral, health, and psychiatric deficits and have recently been used to study the development of serious offending careers. Unfortunately, this research paradigm has largely ignored forensic populations. This study utilized the adverse childhood experiences framework to examine the associations between exposure to violence, victimization, and total adverse childhood experiences on sexual homicide using a sample of 616 incarcerated adult male sexual offenders from Canada 85 of whom committed sexual homicide. Epidemiological tables of odds revealed that a gradient of adverse childhood experiences was associated with sexual homicide, but that the most significant risks were for offenders who had the most extensive abuse histories. In adjusted models, exposure to violence, victimization, and total adverse childhood experiences increased the odds of sexual homicide by 334%, 249%, and 546%, respectively. These effects intensified in models adjusted for childhood enuresis, cruelty to animals, parental abandonment, deviant sexual behaviors, poor self-image, and sexual problems to 559%, 326%, and 849%, respectively. The adverse childhood experiences framework is a systematic way to organize the criminogenic developmental sequela in sexual homicide.

Home Visitors' Perceptions of Structural Constraints, Family Resilience, and Adverse Childhood Experiences

Scholars and practitioners interested in children, families, and health have documented that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) predict a range of adult outcomes. While ACEs research and practice emphasize community- and social-level factors, we explore whether daily practice using the ACEs framework within the home visitation model directs attention away from those broader social factors. Through community-based research partnered with a local agency, we document that home visitors using the ACEs framework combine daily practice at the individual and household level with strong attention to the broader social context the literature emphasizes. But we also document room for further reflective practice to reinforce that broader context, and the role that research partnerships between higher education and local organizations can play in that practice.