Childhood Offending, Adverse Experiences and Service Failure: Findings from a New Zealand National Birth Cohort Study

• In Event: Contemporary Review of Predictors of Juvenile Offending

Abstract

The younger a child starts offending, the more likely their offending persists, causing a lifetime of negative outcomes for that individual, their victims, family, and community. Research tends to focus on youth offending; we need to better understand those under age 14 who offend, what precedes and escalates their behavior, and the impact of interactions with child-welfare and other services. Administrative data on almost 50,000 NZ children from birth in 2000 until 2019 were analyzed to compare characteristics of offending behavior in childhood. Anonymized data on the cohort’s demography, offending/reoffending rates, child-welfare service involvement, school engagement, and socioeconomic status were analyzed. Administrative data analysis enabled a broad, longitudinal understanding of population-level offending groups across a range of child-welfare, education, justice, and socioeconomic indicators, showing that children who offend face many early, compounding adversities. There is a lack of data on interventions and outcomes, such as non-governmental cultural programs that work. Opportunities for improvements to ensure children and families are effectively supported to leave the offending trajectory sooner, by systems that are far more responsive to their diverse needs will be discussed.

Author

• Ian Lambie, Ministry of Justice, New Zealand Government