Childhood Victimization and Delinquency, Adult Criminality, and Violent Criminal Behavior in a Large Urban County in the Northwest United States, 1980-1997

This research project was designed as a replication and
extension of earlier research on how childhood victimization relates
to delinquency, adult criminality, and violent criminal behavior
(CHILD ABUSE, NEGLECT, AND VIOLENT CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR IN A MIDWEST
METROPOLITAN AREA OF THE UNITED STATES, 1967-1988 (ICPSR 9480)). The
study consisted of a sample of abused and neglected children who were
made dependents of the Superior Court of a large urban county in the
Northwest between 1980 and 1984, and a matched control group of
children. Dependency records were obtained from the county court
house. Control match criteria were collected from Department of Health
birth records data. Type of abuse/neglect precipitating the dependency
petition was collected and coded using a modified version of the
Maltreatment Classification Coding Scheme (MCS). Data on juvenile
arrests from juvenile court records, including both number and types,
were collected for each abused and/or neglected youth and each matched
control subject. Adult criminal arrests, excluding routine traffic
offenses, for all abused and neglected subjects and matched controls
were collected from local, county, state, and federal law enforcement
sources. A subset of arrests consisting of violent crimes was
developed as a key outcome of interest. Major types of variables
included in this study are demographics, criminal records, dependency
records (only for those subjects abused/neglected as children),
including type and severity of child abuse/neglect, and census
socioeconomic variables. Several derived variables were also
included.