The Impact of Child Abuse on Criminal Behavior: Understanding the Cycle

Introduction

The Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Later Criminal Consequences articles were informational and interesting to read. Although I read the outcome of the statics that researchers received, I also had the same prediction of the outcome they came up with during their research. Kids who are sexually abused as a child have a higher risk of being active in criminal behavior, which is not shocking evidence.

The Cycle of Violence Hypothesis

Throughout the research, researchers took a lot into consideration of the age, social income, and the age of the selected children, their ethnic background, and gender. The research selected sexually abused children from official courtroom cases, so the evidence was factual. The researcher also chose children of the same background as the child who was abused and compared them to the children who were abused. In this particular research study, the kids who were abused are the independent study, and the child who did not get abused in childhood are the dependent study. Crime is a cycle that is never-ending, especially when it comes to sexual abuse.

“The cycle of violence hypothesis is also supported in the criminological literature by research Which shows there is substantial empirical overlap between criminal offenders and crime victims” (DeLisi, 2014). The threats in this research are individuals who are sexually abused As a child are more likely to commit criminal offenses in the future, which is a devastating factor.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the victims of the tragic incident that they encountered need to seek Treatment immediately. With that being said, an article from 1998 stated, “Training specific to counseling sexual abuse survivors is important; as is the awareness of counselor reactions to working with this population” (Jones, 1998) is still true to this day. Victims of sexual assault need to have a strong support group to be able to heal effectively. If the victims learn how to cope with the tragic incident, they are less likely to be criminal offenders.

References

1. DeLisi, M., Caudill, J. W., & Trulson, C. R. (2014). Does childhood sexual abuse victimization translate into juvenile sexual offending? New evidence. Violence and Victims, 29(4), 620-35 doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-13-00003
2. Jones, K. D., Robinson, E. H., Minatrea, N., & Burnice, L. H. (1998). Coping with reactions to clients traumatized by child sexual abuse. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 20(4), 332–343.