Adolescent Maltreatment and Delinquency: The Question of Intervening Processes

Abstract

A substantial body of research indicates that adolescent maltreatment, like child maltreatment, is associated with elevated levels of delinquency. Criminologists typically account for this relationship by invoking one of three dominant frameworks in criminological theory: “Social control” theorists contend that adolescent maltreatment disrupts important delinquency-inhibiting ties; “social learning” theorists emphasize the deviant values and patterns of behavior that are learned from those that administer maltreatment; whereas “social-psychological strain” theorists emphasize the criminogenic emotions likely to arise among maltreated adolescents, such as anger and resentment. This study uses national survey data to assess the relative merits of these competing explanations. The results provide limited support for all three explanations. The findings are discussed in terms of the need for a more general and complex understanding of the adolescent maltreatment-delinquency relationship.