Juvenile Delinquency and Child Maltreatment - Essay Example

According to Hoagwood, Burns, and Weisz*, “evidenced-based” implicates “a body of knowledge, obtained through carefully implemented scientific methods, about the occurrence, frequency, or risks for mental disorders, or the impact of treatment or services on mental health problems.” (Texas Health and Human Services Commission)Various research data depicts that family violence is the root cause of the prevalence of both officially reported and unreported issues related to child abuse and neglect in the USA.

Apart from this, criminologists’ endeavour to interpret the relationship between childhood abuse and criminality. Cathy Spatz Widom (1989) accomplished, “being abused as a child significantly increases one’s risk of having an adult criminal record….however, the path from childhood victimization to adult criminal behaviour is far from inevitable”. (Female offenders). Scudder et al. (1993) found that “children who break the law, especially through acts of violence, often have a history of maltreatment”.

According to Smith and Thornberry (1995), the history of childhood maltreatment “increases the chances of involvement in delinquency”. Kelley et al. (1997) examined certified police proceedings and also self-reports and calculating for sex, race/ ethnicity, family disadvantage, family structure, and mobility of subjects summarized the findings as: “Maltreated youth… displayed significantly higher prevalence rates of delinquency in terms of thee measures: official records, self-reported moderate delinquency, and self-reported violence.

Childhood maltreatment is a significant and nonspurious risk factor for officially recognized delinquency, violent self-reported delinquency and moderate self-reported delinquency”( Female offenders).These findings state that gender is not a factor in deciding childhood maltreatment and delinquency. Constant research is being carried out to keep a close concern about the enduring harmful outcomes of child abuse, ignorance and the amplified probability of ill-treated and deserted youth being caught up in the juvenile justice system (Maxfield, 1996).