Can we Impede the Life-Course Cycle of Child Maltreatment to Offending?

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

The Crossover for Children Program utilizes the same attorney with the same judge to represent youth who are involved in both dependency and delinquency divisions of the Family Court in a Florida county. The goals are to: avoid felony adjudications, DJJ commitments and establish permanent outcomes for youth. 137 program youths’ records were randomly selected to determine the association between the youths’ age at onset of offenses and parental juvenile adjudications, adult crimes committed, and parental involvement in the dependency system. Results found 70% of the youth in the program had experienced multiple forms of maltreatment and 82% of the youth had a dependency case prior to a juvenile offense. Twenty-four percent of the youth had experienced further maltreatment or were victims of a crime while in the Program. The parents’ juvenile and adult offenses and dependency history, especially the Mother’s, provided a correlation between the youths’ commission of offenses and likelihood for entering the dependency system. Twenty-three percent of the youth had aged out of the system and committed crimes as adults, including child abuse. The results suggest that interventions targeting current offending and maltreatment of the youths’ offspring, especially for female offenders, may help impede this Life-course cycle.

Authors

• Lisa A. Rapp-McCall, Saint Leo University

• Chris Stewart, Texas A&M University, Commerce