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Analyses tested hypotheses that pertain to direct and indirect effects of parent-reported physical and emotional abuse on later self-reported criminal behavior in a sample of 356 adults of a longitudinal study of more than 30 years. Childhood antisocial behavior was included in analyses as a potential mediator. Physical abuse only predicted adult crime indirectly through childhood antisocial behavior, whereas emotional abuse predicted adult outcome both directly and indirectly. Chronicity of physical abuse was indirectly related to later crime in a subsample test for those who had been physically abused (n = 318), whereas chronicity of emotional abuse was neither directly nor indirectly related to adult crime in a test of those who had been emotionally abused (n = 225). Implications for future research and practice are discussed.
Keywords: child abuse type; crime; antisocial behavior; mediation
There is relatively strong evidence that physical and emotional child abuse is associated with later forms of antisocial behaviors in children, adolescents, and young adults (T. I. Herrenkohl, 2011). Although there are exceptions, published findings are in large part from cross-sectional studies in which a temporal ordering of variables is uncertain (e.g., Rosenbaum & Bennett, 1986; Sack & Mason, 1980). In addition, there has been very little published research on the unique effects on adult crime of different types of child abuse-physical versus emotional-and on the compounding risk of abuse chronicity (Higgins, 2004; Higgins & McCabe, 2000; Schaaf & McCanne, 1998; Wind & Silvern, 1992).
Findings of several studies are relevant to the current investigation, which focuses on prospectively measured physical and emotional abuse occurrence and chronicity in relation to adult self-reported crime. Smith and Thornberry (1995) found that a measure of officially recorded child abuse and neglect was associated with moderate to more serious forms of crime, including property damage, burglary, theft, and assault, in adolescent youth. Zingraff, Leiter, Myers, and Johnsen (1993) found that a history of child physical and sexual abuse, also measured using official record data, was associated with status offenses and other forms of antisocial behavior in adolescence, but the association between abuse types and the outcome was not maintained when demographics (gender, race, and family structure) were taken into account. English, Widom, and Brandford (2002) found higher rates of arrests at age 24...