The Influence of Childhood Trauma and Internalizing Behaviors on Female Offending Pathways

• In Event: Developmental and Life Course Perspectives on Early and Late Onset Offending

Abstract

The Developmental and Life Course literature highlights risk and protective factors as central for understanding variation in offending pathways. Empirical research suggests that these risk and protective factors generally operate similarly across females and males. Childhood trauma and internalizing behaviors are an exception, often proving more salient to female offending pathways. The feminist pathways literature similarly highlights early trauma, victimization, and consequential mental health problems as characteristic of women’s offending pathways. However, even among female offenders, these are not universal experiences. How these risks vary across female offenders and whether they are related to variations in female offending patterns is unclear. Using a sample of 470 female offenders from the Australian Institute of Criminology’s Drug Use Careers of Offenders (DUCO) study, we assess variation in self-reported childhood trauma and internalizing behaviors across four offender groups identified with group-based trajectory methods. Findings suggest that childhood trauma and tendencies towards internalizing behaviour are more characteristic of early onset offending compared to later onset. These early onset groups make up only 18.5% of the sample, suggesting a much different pathway for the majority, most of whom onset in early adulthood (61%). Findings reinforce recent calls to better understand women’s late onset offending pathways.

Authors

• Lisa Broidy, Griffith University / University of New Mexico

• Jason L. Payne, Australian National University

• Alex R. Piquero, University of Texas at Dallas