Trajectories of Exposure to Psychological Domestic Abuse and the Relevance of Differential Development for Predicting Violent Offending in Adulthood

Abstract

This study sought to examine patterns of change and continuity in psychological domestic abuse as a strain-related process that may be predictive of violent offending in adulthood. This study also examined the mediating role of negative affect in this relationship. The Pathways to Desistance data were utilized in analyses. This sample comprised 1,354 juvenile offenders. Group-based trajectory modeling was used to identify latent patterns of development in exposure to psychological domestic abuse. Negative binomial regression models were used to examine the direct effect of trajectory group assignment on violent offending in adulthood and the mediating role of negative affect. Results indicated that a four-group model best fit the data. Assignment to the Declining group was associated with decreased violent offending seriousness in adulthood, relative to assignment to the Accelerating group. Negative affect partially mediated this relationship, accounting for around 35% of magnitude of the direct effect observed.

Keywords

psychological abuse juvenile offenders group-based trajectory modeling intimate partner violence emotional violence

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Agnew

(1992). Foundation for a general strain theory of crime and delinquency. Criminology, 30(1), 47–88.

Agnew

(2001). Building on the foundation of general strain theory: Specifying the types of strain most likely to lead to crime and delinquency. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 38(4), 319–361.

Baglivio

M. T.

Epps

Swartz

Huq

M. S.

Sheer

Hardt

N. S.

(2014). The prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) in the lives of juvenile offenders. Journal of Juvenile Justice, 3(2), 1.

Baskin-Sommers

A. R.

Baskin

(2016). Psychopathic traits mediate the relationship between exposure to violence and violent juvenile offending. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 38(3), 341–349.

Brame

Fagan

Piquero

A. R.

Schubert

C. A.

Steinberg

(2004). Criminal careers of serious delinquents in two cities. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 2(3), 256–272.

Breiding

Basile

K. C.

Smith

S. G.

Black

M. C.

Mahendra

R. R.

(2015). Intimate partner violence surveillance: Uniform definitions and recommended data elements (Version 2.0). CDC.

Brosi

M. W.

Rolling

E. S.

(2010). A narrative journey for intimate partner violence: From victim to survivor. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 38(3), 237–250.

Canavire-Bacarreza

G. J.

Rios Avila

(2010). Domestic violence and labor market outcomes: Evidence from a mixed-race developing country. International Journal of Social Economics, 4(1), 1–36

Capaldi

D. M.

Kim

H. K.

Owen

L. D.

(2008). Romantic partners’influence on men’s likelihood of arrest in early adulthood. Criminology, 46(2), 267–299.

10.

Coker

A. L.

Davis

K. E.

Arias

Desai

Sanderson

Brandt

H. M.

Smith

P. H.

(2002). Physical and mental health effects of intimate partner violence for men and women. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 23(4), 260–268.

11.

Connolly

E. J.

Beaver

K. M.

(2015). Assessing the salience of gene–environment interplay in the development of anger, family conflict, and physical violence: A biosocial test of General Strain Theory. Journal of Criminal Justice, 43(6), 487–497.

12.

Conroy

A. A.

(2014). Gender, power, and intimate partner violence: A study on couples from rural Malawi. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 29(5), 866–888.

13.

Farrington

D. P.

(1991). Childhood aggression and adult violence: Early precursors and later life outcomes. The Development and Treatment of Childhood Aggression, 5, 29.

14.

Fix

R. L.

Alexander

A. A.

Burkhart

B. R.

(2018). From family violence exposure to violent offending: Examining effects of race and mental health in a moderated mediation model among confined male juveniles. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 62(9), 2567–2585.

15.

Franzese

R. J.

Menard

Weiss

A. J.

Covey

H. C.

(2017). Adolescent exposure to violence and adult violent victimization and offending. Criminal Justice Review, 42(1), 42–57.

16.

Haggerty

K. P.

Skinner

M. L.

McGlynn

Catalano

R. F.

Crutchfield

R. D.

(2013). Parent and peer predictors of violent behavior of Black and White teens. Violence and Victims, 28(1), 145.

17.

Hawkins

D. F.

Laub

J. H.

Lauritsen

J. L.

Cothern

(2000). Race, ethnicity, and serious and violent juvenile offending. US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

18.

Hay

Evans

M. M.

(2006). Violent victimization and involvement in delinquency: Examining predictions from general strain theory. Journal of Criminal Justice, 34(3), 261–274.

19.

Hines

D. A.

Saudino

K. J.

(2003). Gender differences in psychological, physical, and sexual aggression among college students using the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales. Violence and Victims, 18(2), 197.

20.

Jewkes

(2002). Intimate partner violence: Causes and prevention. The Lancet, 359(9315), 1423–1429.

21.

Jones

Hughes

Unterstaller

(2001). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in victims of domestic violence: A review of the research. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 2(2), 99–119.

22.

Khoury

Wehbi

(2016). Leaving a violent domestic relationship: Experiences of women in Lebanon. International Social Work, 59(1), 73–85.

23.

Kim

Bushway

S. D.

(2018). Using longitudinal self-report data to study the age–Crime relationship. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 34(2), 367–396.

24.

Larson

Vaughn

M. G.

Salas-Wright

C. P.

Delisi

(2015). Narcissism, low self-control, and violence among a nationally representative sample. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 42(6), 644–661.

25.

Laub

J. H.

Sampson

R. J.

(1993). Turning points in the life course: Why change matters to the study of crime. Criminology, 31(3), 301–325.

26.

Lin

W. H.

Cochran

J. K.

Mieczkowski

(2011). Direct and vicarious violent victimization and juvenile delinquency: An application of general strain theory. Sociological Inquiry, 81(2), 195–222.

27.

Liu

(2015). Is the shape of the age-crime curve invariant by sex? Evidence from a national sample with flexible non-parametric modeling. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 31(1), 93–123.

28.

Moffitt

T. E.

(1993). Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy. Psychological Review, 100, 674–701.

29.

Nagin

(2005). Group-based modeling of development. Harvard University Press.

30.

Nofziger

Kurtz

(2005). Violent lives: A lifestyle model linking exposure to violence to juvenile violent offending. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 42(1), 3–26.

31.

Ogilvie

E. L.

Veit

Crofts

Thompson

S. C.

(1999). Hepatitis infection among adolescents resident in Melbourne Juvenile Justice Centre: Risk factors and challenges. Journal of Adolescent Health, 25(1), 46–51.

32.

Orpinas

Nahapetyan

Song

McNicholas

Reeves

P. M.

(2012). Psychological dating violence perpetration and victimization: Trajectories from middle to high school. Aggressive Behavior, 38(6), 510–520.

33.

Pesta

Peralta

R. L.

Novisky

M. A.

(2019). Utilizing a general strain framework to examine behavioral responses to psychological intimate partner violence: Are responses gendered? Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 34(15), 3171–3198.

34.

Piotrowska

P. J.

Stride

C. B.

Croft

S. E.

Rowe

(2015). Socioeconomic status and antisocial behaviour among children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 35, 47–55. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2014.11.003

35.

Richards

T. N.

Branch

K. A.

(2012). The relationship between social support and adolescent dating violence: A comparison across genders. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 27, 1540–1561.

36.

Richards

T. N.

Gillespie

L. K.

(2019). Intimate partner violence perpetration, victimization, and overlap among serious juvenile offenders: Trajectories of emerging adulthood. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. https://dx.doi.org/0886260519881000

37.

Romito

Grassi

(2007). Does violence affect one gender more than the other? The mental health impact of violence among male and female university students. Social Science & Medicine, 65(6), 1222–1234.

38.

Romito

Turan

J. M.

De Marchi

(2005). The impact of current and past interpersonal violence on women’s mental health. Social Science & Medicine, 60(8), 1717–1727.

39.

Sampson

R. J.

Laub

J. H.

(1990). Crime and deviance over the life course: The salience of adult social bonds. American Sociological Review, 55, 609–627.

40.

Steinberg

L. D.

Cauffman

Monahan

(2015). Psychosocial maturity and desistance from crime in a sample of serious juvenile offenders. US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

41.

Tillyer

M. S.

Wright

E. M.

(2014). Intimate partner violence and the victim offender-overlap. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 51, 29–55.

42.

Warner

B. D.

Fowler

S. K.

(2003). Strain and violence: Testing a general strain theory model of community violence. Journal of Criminal Justice, 31(6), 511–521.

43.

Willis

S. M.

Bianchi

A. L.

(2019). Increasing knowledge and awareness about dating violence among college students through a smartphone application. https://sigma.nursingrepository.org/handle/10755/16943

44.

Wojciechowski

T. W.

(2019). Victimization recency, development of anger, and violent offending in early adulthood: A developmental test of general strain theory. Deviant Behavior, 40(7), 866–881.

45.

World Health Organization. (2014). Social determinants of mental health. World Health Organization.

46.

Yount

K. M.

(2009). Women’s “justification” of domestic violence in Egypt. Journal of Marriage and Family, 71(5), 1125–1140.