The Racial and Gender Differences in the Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Juvenile Residential Placement

Wolff

DeLisi

et al. 2020

Childhood maltreatment and inept parental disciplinary, attachment, and monitoring practices evidence a relationship with early and severe childhood and adolescent aggression and have figured prominently as causative factors in theoretical and empirical underpinnings of lifelong antisocial behavior. Abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction have been linked to both violent offending and higher scores on measures of dispositional tendencies associated with psychopathy. The current study incorporates these lines of research by examining a potential pathway by which cumulative adverse childhood experience exposure, rather than single exposures assessed independently, leads to chronic and serious juvenile offending. Specifically, we leverage a sample of 64,007 juvenile offenders who have aged out of the juvenile justice system to examine the extent to which the effects of traumatic exposure on age of onset (first arrest) as well as residential placement, total offenses, and serious, violent, and chronic offending up to age 18 are each mediated by psychopathic features. Results demonstrate that a substantial portion (37%–93%) of the effects of cumulative traumatic exposure on justice system outcomes is indirect, operating through these features, even after controlling for demographic and other criminogenic risk factors. Juvenile justice policy implications are discussed.

Section: Aces and Aggression/offendingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Psychopathic Features on Juvenile Offending Criminal Careers to Age 18

Wolff

DeLisi

et al. 2020

“…Youth with more ACEs were also found to be more likely to reoffend (Wolff & Baglivio, 2017) and to reoffend sooner (Wolff et al, 2017) following completion of a community-based program. Furthermore, ACEs assessed at age 12 were significantly predictive of residential placement by age 18 for Black and Hispanic males, as well as for Black females (Zettler et al, 2018).…”

Section: Juvenile Offending Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Interrelationship Between Empathy and Adverse Childhood Experiences and Their Impact on Juvenile Recidivism

Narvey

Yang

2020

Self Cite

Low empathy has been implicated in antisocial, aggressive, and criminal behavior, especially among adolescents. Less understood is the extent to which empathy is amenable to treatment, and whether an improvement in empathy can mitigate the deleterious effects of known risk factors, such as childhood maltreatment. A sample of 11,000 serious juvenile offenders in long-term residential placement is leveraged to examine whether over cumulative traumatic exposure, measured by the adverse childhood experience (ACE) score, is associated with the initial level of empathy at admission to a residential program, and whether changes in empathy during treatment moderate the impact of ACEs on juvenile recidivism. Results show youth with higher ACE scores have less empathy at admission and both ACEs and empathy predict recidivism. Most importantly, large gains in empathy are able to dampen the effect of ACEs on recidivism.

“…Examining over 64,000 juvenile offenders, Baglivio & Epps (2014) [demonstrated low risk to reoffend youth was more likely to report 0 ACE exposures than high-risk youth, with 22% of the variance in risk to reoffend category (as per a validated tool) explained by the ACE score. Among 4,733 juvenile offenders, each additional ACE exposure, captured by age 12, increased the likelihood that a youth would be committed to a juvenile justice residential facility by age 18 by 20%, though the ACE-residential placement effect did not hold for White males or females or Hispanic females (Zettler, Wolff, Baglivio, Craig, & Epps, 2018).…”

Section: Deleterious Effects Of Aces’ Exposurementioning

confidence: 99%

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Gang Involvement Among Juvenile Offenders: Assessing the Mediation Effects of Substance Use and Temperament Deficits

Wolff

Klein

et al. 2019

A growing body of research has demonstrated the deleterious effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Less understood is the role of ACEs in gang involvement among juvenile offenders. The current longitudinal study employs a sample of 104,267 juvenile offenders (mean age of 16, 76% male, 46% Black non-Hispanic, 15.7% Hispanic) to examine the effect of ACE exposure on two different measures of gang involvement by age 18. We use structural equation modeling to test whether higher ACE exposure at Time 1 predicts gang involvement and whether current substance use and/or difficult temperament mediates the ACE-gang involvement relationship. Results indicate ACE exposure at Time 1 predicts gang involvement by age 18, but that much of the effect of ACEs on later gang involvement can be explained by their impact on current substance abuse and difficult temperament. Implications for juvenile justice systems are discussed.