There is a growing "replication crisis" in the social and behavioral sciences, where original research across a wide array of substantive areas has failed to replicate when conducted by others. This problem highlights the importance of carefully revisiting original research-particularly studies that have exerted a significant influence over the field. Accordingly, in the present study, we subject Widom's classic work, "The Cycle of Violence," to a rigorous empirical reproduction and extension. We subjected her original data to alternative analytic techniques and to different measurement strategies and model specifications. Our results indicated that although we were able to replicate her original results, the link between childhood physical abuse and violence in adulthood failed to survive the robustness checks we conducted. Instead, childhood neglect emerged as the most robust predictor of adult violence.
Social support is important for the average incarcerated person, although variation exists. The amount of support received and whether improvements in support are made over confinement can vary across numerous factors including sentence length and quality of family relationships. Preliminary evidence suggests that risk level might also be an important factor to consider, though no study has examined this possibility. Accordingly, the current study examines whether access to social support (family contact, willingness to support, treatment participation, and non-family support) differs based on risk level classification (low, moderate, moderate-high, high). Additionally, we assess how risk level is associated with changes in social support during confinement. Using a sample of incarcerated youth, results show that access to social support, and to a lesser extent changes in social support during confinement, differ across risk level. The findings have important implications for juvenile justice system responses and efforts to promote support.
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