Examining the overlap of young people’s early contact with the police as a person of interest and victim or witness

Abstract

There is known to be considerable overlap among the victims and perpetrators of crime. However, the extent of this overlap early in life among children and young adolescents is not clear. We examined the sociodemographic profiles of young people who had early contact with police regarding a criminal incident as a person of interest, victim and/or witness, as well as the patterns of multiple police contact types from birth to 13 years of age. Data were drawn from a longitudinal, population-based sample of 91,631 young people from New South Wales, Australia. Among the 10.6% (n = 9677) of young people who had contact with police, 14.4% (n = 1393) had contact as a person of interest and as a victim and/or witness on two or more separate occasions. The most common first contact type was as a victim/witness, but those children with a first contact as a person of interest were most likely to have at least one further contact. Young people with both types of police contact were younger at first police contact, were more likely to reside in a socioeconomically disadvantaged area, and to be recorded as having an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander background. Our findings demonstrate that, by 13 years of age, 1 in 10 young people had been in early contact with police and that a minority have contact with the police as both a person of interest and a victim/witness. These young people may represent a particularly disadvantaged group in the community who are likely to be at risk of future adversity, including repeated contact with the criminal justice system.

Levels of Involvement with Child Protection Services Associated with Early Adolescent Police Contact as a Victim and Person of Interest

“…Parental history of criminal offending in this group was high; over three-quarters had a parent with a criminal offending history compared to around one-third in the total sample. Research on young people who are both victims and offenders has similarly found higher levels of vulnerability for some risk factors (Athanassiou et al, 2021;Cuevas et al, 2022;Randone & Thomas, 2022). Specifically, in their study of Latino young people, Cuevas et al (2022) found that while cultural and mental health variables were not different across groups (i.e., delinquent-victims, primarily victims, primarily delinquent, or neither delinquent nor victims), delinquent-victim young people were differentiated by degree of family support and self-reported anger/hostility.…”

Relationships between parental mental illness and/or offending and offspring contact with the police in childhood: Findings from a longitudinal record‐linkage study

“…Other explanations may include environmental factors, such as low income that may follow mental illness or justice involvement, or other family circumstances that increase the likelihood of both parental adversity and child victimisation. Beyond the need to prevent children's experiences of indirect and direct victimisation given the inherent harm involved, both these types of victimisation have been shown to be associated with an increased likelihood of offending (Farrell & Zimmerman, 2018 ; Hartinger‐Saunders et al., 2011 ) and re‐victimisation (Athanassiou et al., 2021 ; Ellonen & Salmi, 2011 ), in addition to the link between indirect exposure to violence and risk of direct victimisation (Finkelhor et al., 2015 ; Hamby et al., 2010 ).…”

“…In this context a person of interest is defined as an individual who has not necessarily been formally accused of a crime but is of interest to the police during the investigation of a criminal incident, such as assault, robbery or fraud, or a non-criminal incident, such as traffic accident, natural disaster and missing person; a victim is a person who suffers harm as a direct result of a criminal or non-criminal incident investigated by police; a witness is a person who sees, hears or experiences a criminal or non-criminal incident investigated by police (Whitten et al, 2020). It was possible for children to have contact with police for more than one reason during the observation period and previous analyses have identified considerable overlap (see Athanassiou et al, 2021). Police contact in relation to 'children at-risk' incidents or mandatory reporting requirements were not included.…”

“…Young people in early contact with the criminal justice system are at increased risk of repeated contact (Athanassiou et al., 2021 ; Farrington, 2003 ), as well as of mental health and substance use problems, poor educational outcomes and unemployment (Blomberg et al., 2011 ; Caspi et al., 1998 ; Farrell & Zimmerman, 2018 ). Understanding factors associated with early criminal justice contact could help identify and support these vulnerable children and their families.…”

Evidencing Predictors of Adolescent to Parent Violence Re-Offending Through Linkage of Police and Health Records

“…1.An adolescent is recorded as a person of interest when they come under notice by the NSWPF as the result of their involvement in a police incident. This involvement may or may not result in their arrest or legal action being issued (Athanassiou et al, 2021). All police incidents when recorded on the COPS database are further classified with one or more associated factors.…”