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 andextension of earlier research on how childhood victimization relatesto delinquency, adult criminality, and violent criminal behavior(CHILD ABUSE, NEGLECT, AND VIOLENT CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR IN A MIDWESTMETROPOLITAN AREA OF THE UNITED STATES, 1967-1988 (ICPSR 9480)). Thestudy consisted of a sample of abused and neglected children who weremade dependents of the Superior Court of a large urban county in theNorthwest between 1980 and 1984, and a matched control group ofchildren. Dependency records were obtained from the county courthouse. Control match criteria were collected from Department of Healthbirth records data. Type of abuse/neglect precipitating the dependencypetition was collected and coded using a modified version of theMaltreatment Classification Coding Scheme (MCS). Data on juvenilearrests from juvenile court records, including both number and types,were collected for each abused and/or neglected youth and each matchedcontrol subject. Adult criminal arrests, excluding routine trafficoffenses, for all abused and neglected subjects and matched controlswere collected from local, county, state, and federal law enforcementsources. A subset of arrests consisting of violent crimes wasdeveloped as a key outcome of interest. Major types of variablesincluded in this study are demographics, criminal records, dependencyrecords (only for those subjects abused/neglected as children),including type and severity of child abuse/neglect, and censussocioeconomic variables. Several derived variables were alsoincluded.