Understanding Childhood Victimization Experiences and Mental Health Outcomes in a Sample of Prison Inmates in Northern Chile

Abstract

Prior research has shown a link between childhood victimization and adverse mental health effects in incarcerated individuals. However, these studies have generally focused on physical abuse or sexual abuse and have been conducted in developed countries. Based on this background, the present study aimed to explore the associations between different forms of childhood victimization and psychological distress in a sample of individuals deprived of liberty in northern Chile. Data from 229 participants in a high-security prison were analyzed, incorporating six victimization modules including conventional crimes, caregiver victimization, peer victimization, sexual victimization, and indirect victimization. Correlation analyses and hierarchical regression revealed associations between different victimization forms and psychological distress. Notably, gender, caregiver victimization, and sexual victimization emerged as the key predictors of mental health issues in this population. Considering that many of these individuals may have been exposed to experiences of victimization in their childhood, it becomes crucial to prioritize their mental well-being as part of their rehabilitation process. It is necessary to continue deepening the understanding of these phenomena through studies considering the high prevalence of mental health problems among individuals in correctional systems.

Keywords

childhood victimization prison inmates mental health child abuse sexual abuse

Introduction

Research that has addressed the mental health of persons deprived of liberty has documented the association between conflicting with the law and experiencing mental health problems (Angelakis et al., 2020; Baranyi et al., 2018; Fazel et al., 2016). An essential aspect to consider is the analysis of childhood experiences of victimization and their correlation with mental health difficulties within the incarcerated population. (Casey et al., 2020; Esteban-Febres et al., 2019; Karlsson & Zielinski, 2020; Reavis et al., 2013; Wolff et al., 2022). Although most studies have focused on child physical and sexual abuse, a developmental victimology approach providing a comprehensive examination of childhood adversity is lacking. Particularly, of the interpersonal victimization experiences and their influences on mental health of incarcerated people. Following this framework (Finkelhor, 2007), the present study aims to examine the association between different forms of childhood victimization and psychopathological symptomatology in individuals deprived of liberty.

Literature Review

There is a growing body of research addressing the influence of childhood adversity and early victimization on mental health problems in persons deprived of liberty (Wolff et al., 2022; Zhang & Zheng, 2018). For example, research in this field has revealed high rates of mental health problems and trauma-related symptomatology, primarily depressive disorders, PTSD, and substance use (Karlsson & Zielinski, 2020). A meta-analysis showed a pooled prevalence of PTSD of 6.2% for men and 21.1% for women deprived of liberty (Baranyi et al., 2018). Another meta-analysis by Facer-Irwin et al. (2019) revealed elevated psychiatric comorbidity of PTSD with other mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, substance use, suicidality, and aggressive behavior in this population. In this sense, one of the most relevant findings in this area is based on the literature that has shown that many of the people who have problems with the justice system report having experienced some type of victimization in their childhood (Jaffee et al., 2004; Messman-Moore et al., 2005). Indeed, there is evidence of a strong association between childhood victimization experiences and conflicts with justice, which may eventually lead to incarceration (Croysdale et al., 2008; Debowska & Boduszek, 2017; Kerig, 2018; Williams & Herrera, 2007).

Also, the research in this area has highlighted the influence of several types of childhood victimization and its negative effects on the mental health of liberty-deprived people. For example, concerning gender differences, various studies have suggested the association between sexual victimization and mental health problems highlighting higher rates of mental disorders related to this type of violence in women (B. L. Green et al., 2016; Lynch et al., 2017), especially mental disorders and substance use and the possible existence of comorbidity patterns with others mental health problems (Casey et al., 2020). A review by Karlsson and Zielinski (2020) showed that incarcerated women have a higher prevalence of childhood sexual victimization than incarcerated men and higher than women of community samples. A subsequent study by Wolff et al. (2022) confirmed that, in general, liberty-deprived women were more likely to have lived through adversity and experienced a higher number of victimizations. On the other hand, regardless of gender, other studies have reported conventional crimes and witnessing and indirect victimization in childhood have also been associated with increased mental health problems in persons deprived of liberty (Esteban-Febres et al., 2019; B. L. Green et al., 2016; Soler et al., 2015). Also, the experience of multiple types of victimization may have an accumulative negative effect on mental health, as is often the case with persons deprived of liberty, who generally report several childhood victimization experiences (Croysdale et al., 2008; Debowska & Boduszek, 2017).

Taking into account previous research, it is necessary to consider this problem beyond the Western countries. For instance, South America, including countries like Chile, remains an emerging field of research concerning childhood victimization experiences and their impact on the mental health of individuals deprived of liberty.

In Chile, the prison population is 38,908, of which 35,513 (91.7%) are men and 3,395 (8.3%) are women (Gendarmería de Chile, 2018). In the extreme northern region of Chile, where the present research was conducted, the total prison population is 1,852, of which 1,654 (89.3%) are men, and 198 (10.7%) are women. With these figures, the region’s prisons are at capacity, with a total occupancy rate of 94.9%. However, even though prison services in the region have not collapsed, there are deficiencies in infrastructure and habitability conditions (Gendarmería de Chile, 2018).

Regarding mental health problems in liberty-deprived people, studies conducted in Chile, mostly carried out in the capital (Santiago de Chile) have reported that 28.6% of the prison population presents some mental health problem, the most prevalent being addictive disorders (12.6%), anxiety disorders (8.3%), and affective disorders (8.1%). Similarly, studies have reported higher rates of depressive disorders and drug abuse in the prison population compared to the general population (Mundt et al., 2013, 2016). One study focused on suicide described a profile of people who commit these acts in the Chilean prison context; for example, it was found that 97.7% of suicides were committed by men of different ages (from 16 to 74 years) and that 43.2% of them, a depressive state was identified as a trigger for suicide (Ceballos-Espinoza et al., 2016). In relation to women, Sanhueza et al. (2019) analyzed the situation of incarcerated women in Chile and their treatment needs. The study found that a significant percentage of these women had experienced traumatic events such as exposure to domestic violence (45%) or sexual abuse during childhood or adolescence (26%). It was also found that women had more problems of coexistence than their male counterparts but fewer conflicts with the authorities; women also reported systematic histories of exclusion and social disadvantage, substance use, and self-destructive behaviors.

The Present Study

Research on the relationship between the different types of childhood victimization and their correlation with mental health problems in the Chilean prison population is scant. At the international level, a major gap in the evidence is that studies have generally focused on physical and sexual abuse in childhood (Caravaca Sánchez et al., 2017; Casey et al., 2020), ignoring other forms of victimization to which one may be exposed in the childhood stage (White & Frisch-Scott, 2022). Also, the majority of studies have been conducted in geographical areas different from Latin America. In this context, and considering the reviewed literature, we have two major hypotheses: (1) The different types of childhood and adolescence victimization will be associated with higher indicators of mental health problems; (2) the different forms of child and adolescent victimization will be associated with psychological distress in adulthood, even when controlling for sociodemographic variables such as gender and level education.

Method

Participants

This study was conducted in the maximum-security prison in northern Chile. We used a non-probabilistic sampling of 229 adults (M = 38.78; SD = 12.83), representing 12% of the total inmates in the prison complex. Of the total sample, 49.8% were men (n = 114) and 50.2% were women (n = 115); the age range was 19 to 77 years; the majority are Chilean (63.4%), while 36.6% identified themselves as foreigners (Bolivian, Peruvian, or other Latin American countries); the 74.1% (n = 163) of the sample had an educational level of elementary/middle school or high school, while 25.9% (n = 57) had obtained a technical degree or higher education. A total of 34.2% (n = 68) identified as Latin American, while 65.8% (n = 131) belonged to a specific ethnicity. The majority of the sample (82%; n = 178) reported incomes ranging from less than 257 US to 1,029 US, while 18% (n = 39) reported incomes of 1,030 US and above.

Instruments

Sociodemographic Questionnaire

A sociodemographic questionnaire was administered to collect the data on sociodemographic variables such as sex, age, nationality, ethnicity, educational level, level of income prior to incarceration, and time spent in prison.

Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire—Adult Retrospective Version—JVQ

This is a 34-item adult retrospective self-report questionnaire designed to collect multiple childhood victimization experiences (Hamby et al., 2005). This instrument has five subscales that assess five different types of victimization that occurred before the age of 17: Conventional crimes (eights items, for example, theft or personal thefts); caregiver victimization (four items, for example, physical violence, neglect, parental interference); peer and sibling victimization (nine items, for example, bullying); sexual victimization and assault (four items, for example, sexual abuse, rape); witnessing or indirect victimization (nine items, for example, witnessing domestic violence). An example of one item is: “When you were a child, did anyone use force to take something away from you that you were carrying or wearing?” To answer the questionnaire, participants must respond on a six-point scale to the number of times they have experienced each aggression from birth to 17 years of age (i.e., none, 1 time, 2 times, 3 times, 4 times, or 5 or more times). The Spanish version of the JVQ adapted to the local Chilean language was used (Pereda et al., 2018). In the present study, the JVQ omega (ω) coefficients were 0.84 for the conventional crime domain, 0.78 for the child maltreatment domain, 0.75 for the peer and sibling victimization domain, 0.88 for the sexual victimization and assault domain, and 0.83 for the indirect victimization domain. The internal consistency for the total JVQ and for each of its modules was calculated using Omega’s alpha as a measure of coherence. Omega’s coefficient has been shown to be more accurate than Cronbach’s alpha, reducing the risks of overestimating or underestimating the reliability (S. B. Green & Yang, 2015).

Brief Symptom Inventory—BSI

BSI is a self-report instrument that aims to assess psychopathological symptomatology that configures mental health problems in adolescents and adults (Derogatis & Melisaratos, 1983). The whole scale has 53 items, which are grouped into nine symptom subscales: somatization (7 items), obsession-compulsion (6 items), depression (6 items), anxiety (6 items), aggressiveness-hostility (5 items), phobic anxiety (5 items), paranoid ideation (5 items), interpersonal sensitivity (4 items) and psychoticism (5 items). It also has four additional items, and three general indexes (global severity index, positive distress index and total positive symptom index). Respondents must specify the degree of discomfort that each symptom has caused them in the course of the last 2 weeks, using a 5-point Likert-type scale (0–4), where 0 indicates “not at all” and 4 means “extremely.” The score for each subscale is obtained by adding the scores of the items corresponding to each subscale divided by the number of items. The global severity index is calculated by adding the scores obtained in the nine subscales and additional items and dividing that number by the total number of responses. The positive distress index is calculated by dividing the total sum of the responses given to the items by the value obtained in Total Positive Symptoms (TPS). Finally, the total positive symptom index is estimated by counting the number of items with a positive response (greater than zero). BSI has shown good psychometric properties (Derogatis & Melisaratos, 1983), as well as its Spanish version (Pereda et al., 2007), providing a reliable measure of psychological distress symptoms which has also been employed in the prison population (Valera et al., 2015). For the present study, the total BSI scale presented an α of 0.97, and the subscales presented the following reliability indices: somatization (0.88), obsession-compulsion (0.86), interpersonal sensitivity (0.76), depression (0.83), anxiety (0.89), hostility (0.87), phobic anxiety (0.82), paranoid ideation (0.71), and psychoticism (0.73).

Procedure

The University Scientific Ethics Committee approved the study. The data analyzed in this study correspond to the responses of all participants to the instruments administered. The Regional Directorate of the Penitentiary of the extreme north of Chile was contacted to carry out the research and was notified about the objectives and procedures of the study. Subsequently, meetings were held with the Technical Directorate of the Penitentiary, where the researchers were oriented regarding the institution’s operation and were provided with information about the prison population and security protocols. The application of the instruments was carried out in the penitentiary. Data was collected in two 5-day periods in January 2018 in different areas of the prison complex. First, the objectives and instruments were examined by the psychologists of the psychosocial teams working inside the prison. Subsequently, voluntary participants from each section of the prison were called to participate in an anonymous survey. The inmates individually answered the instruments in a room within the prison, in the presence of the gendarmes. Prior to the application of instruments, a letter of informed consent was distributed describing the research objectives, the time frame for its completion, the names of the research team members, and their confirmation of participation in the study. It was made clear to the inmates that participation was voluntary and that they could withdraw from the study any time they chose. Once the informed consent was signed, it was explained to them how to answer the questionnaires. No participant refused to answer the questionnaire. A total of 240 sets of instruments were thus collected; however, eleven questionnaires were excluded through a listwise deletion method because they were not completed.

Data Analysis

The data obtained were tabulated in a database and analyzed in the statistical software IBM SPSS version 25. For the initial analyses, descriptive statistics such as frequency measures and percentages were used for each sociodemographic. Subsequently, each JVQ item was dichotomized according to the occurrence or non-occurrence of the type of victimization consulted and then summed to generate a numerical variable associated with each module of the instrument. According to the affirmative responses in each module, a score was calculated for each domain; the higher the number of affirmative responses, the higher the victimization score in each domain of the JVQ.

The normality of the data was analyzed using tests of skewness and kurtosis for the variables of interest, and they were found to be within the range of 2 and 7, indicating that the data is suitable for parametric statistical analysis (Hu & Bentler, 1999). In this regard, to conduct a comparative analysis, the student’s t-test was chosen to compare the sociodemographic characteristics with psychological distress initially. For specific mental health indicators, the BSI scales were used, where the sum of each item corresponding to each subscale was calculated, giving an overall score for each of the nine psychopathological symptom scales, specifically, the higher the score, the higher the intensity of the symptoms of each scale. Subsequently, correlations were established between both measures, type of victimization and psychopathological symptoms, serving as an indicator of mental health. A multiple hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to explain the variability of the data in a dependent variable (psychological distress) based on independent variables, specifically different experiences of child and adolescent victimization. Preliminary checks were performed on the assumptions of regression models, including normality, linearity, homoscedasticity, multicollinearity, and independence. For instance, outliers and influential observations were identified using residual scatter plots. Additionally, to test the independence of residuals, ensuring that errors in the measurement of explanatory variables are independent of each other, the Durbin-Watson statistic was checked to fall within the range of 1.5 to 2.5 (Vilà Baños et al., 2019). Multicollinearity was assessed using tolerance and variance inflation factors. The variable sex and educational level were controlled. The significance level was set at p < .05.

Results

Initially, we compared the psychological distress according to the different sociodemographic variables of the incarcerated individuals. In relation to this, a significant difference in psychological distress was found based on educational level, (t = −2.42; p < .05). Additionally, women reported significantly higher levels of psychological distress (M = 1.24; SD = 0.92) compared to men (see Table 1). The remaining sociodemographic variables were not significant.

Table 1.

Sample Characteristics.

					Psychological distress
	Male	Female	Total		M (SD)	p-Value
Variable	%	%	n	%
Male	—	—	114	49.8	0.55 (0.57)
Female	—	—	115	50.2	1.24 (0.92)	≤.001
Age
19 to 40	47.7	63.5	125	55.8	0.93 (0.86)
41 or more	52.3	36.5	99	44.2	0.84 (0.84)	.42
Nationality
Chilean	74.3	52.2	144	63.4	0.90 (0.87)
Foreigners	25.7	47	83	36.6	0.90 (0.80)	.94
Educational level
Elementary/middle—high school	70.1	77.9	163	74.1	0.98 (0.87)
Technician degree or higher education	29.9	22.1	57	25.9	0.70 (0.74)	<.05
Ethnic background
Latinoamerican	34.3	34.4	68	34.2	0.76 (0.66)
Belonging to an ethnicity	65.7	65.6	131	65.8	0.92 (0.88)	.18
Income
<257 US to 1,029	72.5	92.5	178	82	0.92 (0.82)
1,030 or more	27.5	7.5	39	18	0.71 (0.88)	.19

Note. The differences in sample sizes are due to omitted responses.

To compare the sex differences on the differential impact of victimization experiences on mental health, sex-differentiated direct effects were evaluated (see Table 2). In general terms, the relationships range from slight to moderate in men, while in women, they range from moderate to high. This was particularly true for individuals deprived of liberty who experienced sexual victimization.

Table 2.

Pearson’s Correlations Between Types of Childhood Victimization and Symptomatology.

		CC	CV	PS	SV	WI
	Somatization	.31**	.28**	.36**	.42**	.35**
	Obsession	.40**	.40**	.38**	.26**	.38**
	Depression	.30**	.31**	.31**	.34**	.29**
	Anxiety	.33**	.34**	.41**	.40**	.37**
Men	Aggressiveness	.37**	.34**	.48**	.37**	.43**
	Phobia	.28**	.34**	.31**	.38**	.33**
	Paranoid	.25**	.23**	.31**	.34**	.36**
	Sensitivity	.30**	.31**	.31**	.34**	.29**
	Psychoticism	.35**	.31**	.39**	.22*	.30**
	Somatization	.41**	.43**	.44**	.49**	.33**
	Obsession	.46*	.38**	.41**	.50**	.34**
	Depression	.48**	.44**	.37**	.51**	.34*
	Anxiety	.51**	.39**	.43**	.57**	.39**
Women	Aggressiveness	.48**	.43**	.35**	.53**	.43**
	Phobia	.44*	.41**	.41**	.55**	.41**
	Paranoid	.44**	.48**	.37**	.53**	.34**
	Sensitivity	.48**	.44**	.37**	.51**	.34**
	Psychoticism	.37**	.35**	.36**	.42**	.31**

Note. CC = conventional crime; CV = caregiver victimization; PS = peer and sibling victimization; SV = sexual victimization; WI = witnessing and indirect victimization; JVQ = total victimization.

p < .05 level (bilateral). **p < .01 level (bilateral).

Given these findings, we decided to perform a hierarchical multiple regression analysis to compare which type of child victimization had the greatest impact on the general mental health problems of the individual, considering the general symptomatology, and the mean of victimization experiences as independent variables. Additionally, we decided to control for the effect of sex and educational level. In this sense, the main results are summarized in Table 3.

Table 3.

Hierarchical Regression Models for Mental Health Problems According to Type of Child Victimization.

	Variables	B	Desv. error	B	t
Model 1	Sex	0.70	0.10	0.41***	6.70
Model 1	Educational level	−0.20	0.10	−0.10	−1.74
Model 2	Sex	0.71	0.09	0.42***	7.77
	Educational level	−0.21	0.10	−0.11*	−2.05
	Conventional crimes victimization	1.29	0.09	0.42***	7.86
Model 3	Sex	0.63	0.08	0.38***	7.23
	Educational level	−0.17	0.10	−0.09	−1.74
	Conventional crimes victimization	0.68	0.21	0.22**	3.25
	Caregiver victimization	0.75	0.18	0.38***	4.13
Model 4	Sex	0.63	0.98	0.38***	7.11
	Educational level	−0.18	0.10	−0.09	−1.82
	Conventional crimes victimization	0.44	0.24	0.14	1.78
	Caregiver victimization	0.67	0.18	0.25***	3.66
	Peer and sibling victimization	0.43	0.21	0.15*	2.02
Model 5	Sex	0.43	0.09	0.25***	4.56
	Educational level	−0.22	0.09	−0.11*	−2.33
	Conventional crimes victimization	0.27	0.23	0.09	1.28
	Caregiver victimization	0.41	0.17	0.15**	2.62
	Peer and sibling victimization	0.18	0.20	0.06	0.99
	Sexual victimization	1.43	0.25	0.37***	5.46
Model 6	Sex	0.43	0.09	0.25***	4.62
	Educational level	−0.23	0.09	−0.12*	−2.44
	Conventional crimes victimization	0.23	0.23	0.07	1.02
	Caregiver victimization	0.42	0.18	0.14*	2.06
	Peer and sibling victimization	0.11	0.21	0.04	0.64
	Sexual victimization	1.39	0.25	0.36***	5.27
	Witnessing and indirect victimization	0.24	0.19	0.08	1.33

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

In Model 1, only the sex variable was introduced, as the literature has highlighted associated differences. This step was taken to control for the effect of this variable in the subsequent models. As could be seen, the sex was associated with psychological distress (B = .41, p < .001). In model 2, we found the sex maintained its significance (B = .42, p < .001), we added the variable and the educational level (B = −.11, p < .001), and victimization by conventional crimes, which was also (B = .42, p < .001. In the case of model 3, we found that sex was significant (B = .38, p < .001), as was victimization by conventional crimes, which was also found to be statistically significantly (B = .22, p < .01) associated with symptomatology. Caregiver victimization was significant for this model when controlling for the other variables (B = .38, p < .001). The educational level was not significant. In relation to Model 4, sex retained significance (B = .38, p < .001). Additionally, caregiver victimization was significant (B = .25, p < .001), and peer and sibling victimization (B = .15, p < .5) were associated with symptomatology. Conventional crimes and educational level were not significant for model 4 when controlling for the remaining variables in the model.

For model 5, the inclusion of the sexual victimization variable represented changes in the remaining types of victimization, even affecting their significance. For example, we found that sex (B = .25, p < .001), the educational level (B = −.11, p < .05), caregiver victimization (B = .15, p < .001) and sexual victimization (B = .37, p < .01) were the three statistically significant variables when controlling for the effect of the other included variables. The remaining types of victimization were not significant.

In the case of model 6, the previous results were maintained, the inclusion of the indirect victimization variable did not represent an alteration in the significance indicated in model 5, that is, sex (B = .25, p < .001), educational level (B = −.12, p < .05). Caregiver victimization (B = .14, p < .05) and sexual victimization (B = .36, p < .001) were significantly associated with psychological distress. The remaining types of victimization were not significant.

Discussion

This study sets out insights into childhood victimization experiences and their association with different mental health problems in adulthood in persons deprived of liberty in northern Chile. Our first findings addresses differences in psychological distress regarding sex and level of education. In this sense, our results are consistent with previous studies indicating that women deprived of liberty have worse mental health indicators than men (Favril et al., 2017; Lindquist & Lindquist, 1997), which have been attributed to less access to quality mental health services by incarcerated women. Indeed, women in the general population have more barriers to access to quality mental health programs and the same trends show in liberty-deprived women (Bright et al., 2023). Also, other factors to explain these differences are separation among women and their families and sons (Baunach, 2020), lack of specific programs to respond to their needs of women (Franke et al., 2019) and trauma, violence, and childhood abuse experiences consequences (Anderson et al., 2020).

Regarding education level, the results of the present study align with findings from a study by Gonçalves et al. (2016), which indicates that mental health problems are more prevalent in people with lower education. This observation is consistent with scientific literature, where such disparities have been attributed to limited coping skills, socioeconomic stress, and a lack of access to mental health services (Nowotny et al., 2016). While these preliminary results have identified the relationship between sociodemographic variables (gender and education level) and mental health problems in individuals deprived of liberty, the primary objective of the present study is to deepen the understanding of mental health problems in this specific group, specifically by analyzing experiences of childhood victimization.

Regarding hypothesis 1, it was accepted, because we found that all types of childhood victimization (conventional crime, victimization by caregivers, peer and sibling victimization, sexual victimization, and indirect victimization) were associated with increased risk of somatization, obsession, depression, anxiety, aggression, phobic anxiety, hostility, psychoticism, and paranoid ideation. These findings align with existing literature that has established a connection between childhood victimization and mental health problems in adulthood (Casey et al., 2020; Reavis et al., 2013; Soler et al., 2015). Notably, the present study adds a higher level of specificity by considering the symptomatology assessed. In relation to conventional crimes and witnessing and indirect victimization, our results are congruent with the literature. The exposure to these types of victimization was associated with symptomatology such as worries, fears, apprehensions about adverse events that may occur (Sierra et al., 2003), symptoms that could be related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), so it is to be expected that people who have experienced some type of conventional crime in childhood, maintain associated worries at other times of their lives, as anticipation of danger, especially when these experiences have not been approached from a therapeutic point of view.

In the case of victimization by caregivers, which includes several forms of parental abuse and neglect, this type of victimization was associated with mental health problems in both men and women. Caregiver victimization is a critical childhood experience (Angelakis et al., 2020; Moore et al., 2013) since it occurs within the family household in the early careful relationships context, which is key for human development. In addition, it is related to other types of victimization in other lifetimes as could be the case of persons involved in the justice system (Debowska & Boduszek, 2017; Dembo et al., 2000; Soler et al., 2015).

Also, peer and sibling victimization was associated with all mental health problem indicators assessed in the present study. A tentative explanation for this finding could be that peer victimization in childhood is generally known to be linked to maladaptation in adulthood (McDougall & Vaillancourt, 2015), which may in part explain the mental health problems and eventual incarceration. However, there are limited studies that have explored the association between peer victimization in childhood and symptomatology in adulthood among individuals deprived of liberty. Therefore, further research is needed to fill this gap in the existing knowledge.

Similarly, sexual victimization was found to be associated with various types of symptomatology related to mental health problems. Importantly, it exhibited a larger effect size compared to other types of victimization. This effect size is greater in the case of women. These results are consistent with previous literature that has linked the negative psychological consequences of being a victim of sexual abuse during childhood (Casey et al., 2020; Debowska & Boduszek, 2017; Karlsson & Zielinski, 2020). This could be explained by the fact that sexual victimization has been identified as one of the most significant forms of child victimization in people’s lives (Harris et al., 2021; Karlsson et al., 2020) and has generally been linked to trauma, post-traumatic stress, and psychological maladjustment. On the other hand, sex was significant in sexual victimization. In fact, the high levels of violence and sexual violence have been widely documented previously in studies within the general population in Chile (Saldarriaga et al., 2020) and particularly in women in northern Chile (Pinto-Cortez et al., 2021). This could be explained by the fact that Chilean women living in extreme geographical areas such as northern Chile suffered specific deprivation due to the country’s economic and social centralization (Mora, 2013).

This aspect should be seriously considered in incarcerated women, as a specific relationship has been found between the sexual victimization of women and the commission of crimes in this group (Tossone et al., 2018).

In the second phase of the present research, we accepted hypothesis 2. We analyzed how different types of child victimization were associated with psychological distress when considering relevant sociodemographic variables, namely sex and educational level. By including these variables in the models individually, they undergo important modifications, specifically when sexual victimization is part of it. The variable sex is very important, and in the case of a woman deprived of her liberty, this could be a risk and is related to the Latin American context where there are high levels of inequality, exclusion, exposure to violence, and sexual objectification of women and girls (Bott et al., 2012). In addition, cultural, social, and economic systems that perpetuate and accentuate violence against women predominate (Wilson, 2014). In this sense, women are generally exposed to greater mental health difficulties in the later stages of development.

The variable educational level fluctuated between levels of significance and non-significance in the different regression models analyzed. This observation may be attributed to the recognition of educational level as a risk factor for the occurrence of mental health problems across various stages of development (Halme et al., 2023; Kivimäki et al., 2020). One explanation could be that the lower the level of education, the less information about mental health may be available, making it less likely that people will seek mental health care when they need it (Halme et al., 2023). This would partly explain the role of this variable in the symptomatology of persons deprived of liberty.

However, caregiver and sexual victimization showed the greatest association with psychopathological symptomatology, even in comparison to other types of childhood victimization experiences. This is relevant in terms of mental health problems in Chile, because high rates of caregiver victimization have been reported in previous national studies (Portilla-Saavedra et al., 2022). In this study, sexual victimization seems to be the most prominent form of adverse experience. This is a relevant aspect because it has been documented that sexual victimization has a strong relationship with incarceration at an early age (Harris et al., 2021), and is the main predictor of psychopathology in the adult stage in persons deprived of liberty (Coleman & Stewart, 2010). These findings could be explained by the high prevalence of child sexual abuse reported both in the general population and in the population deprived of liberty (Azimi et al., 2021), and which is generally reported more by women (McGrath et al., 2011). Nevertheless, this should not be interpreted as an underestimation of the prevalence of these adverse experiences in men deprived of liberty, who also undergo such experiences during childhood (Alaggia & Millington, 2008; Roxburgh & MacArthur, 2014; Zgoba et al., 2012).

The theoretical contribution of the present study could be related to the developmental victimology research field (Finkelhor, 2007), which points out that children and adolescents suffer different lifetime types of victimization in different contexts. In a similar vein, taking into account this theory and the results of the present study, the significance of other forms of victimization for mental health in the adult stage of individuals deprived of liberty cannot be underestimated. Specifically, regard to the poly-victimization or multiple victimization experiences (concept from this theoretical framework) could help to better understand the cumulative negative effects of the different types of victimization on child development trajectories in liberty-deprived persons. Despite the pronounced impact of sexual victimization and victimization by caregivers in this population, future research could be examined into the study of polyvictimization and its relationship with mental health problems in individuals deprived of liberty. This is especially important across different cultural contexts, including Latin American countries such as Chile.

However, the results could be contributed to criminology studies that support the relationship of interchangeable victim-victimizer roles (Jennings et al., 2012), which states that a person can be a victim in a certain context, and a victimizer at another stage of development (Kozak et al., 2018). It also points out that the younger the age at which they suffered violence, the earlier they engage in risky behaviors that could involve criminal scenarios or conflict with the law (Kozak et al., 2018). In this sense, it has also been concluded that the type of victimization suffered would play a determining role in its relationship with delinquent behaviors.

The present study has several strengths. Firstly, it addresses the challenge of accessing a sample that includes both men and women deprived of liberty. Secondly, there is a scarcity of research in Latin America examining the connection between various forms of childhood victimization and mental health problems in adulthood in persons deprived of liberty. The present study has also various limitations. Firstly, the study design was cross-sectional, and therefore, caution should be exercised in interpreting the results. The inability to accurately distinguish the temporal order of events or extend beyond correlation limits the findings. Secondly, the information was self-reported and retrospective, which could favor recall bias. Future research should employ prospective designs, address the variables that moderate or mediate the relationship between childhood victimization and symptomatology in persons deprived of liberty, and analyze possible changes across developmental stages.

Practical Implications

We consider that the results obtained in the present study suggest to develop intervention programs in the Chilean prison system, first considering the mental health needs of the prison population in general, and particularly in women, especially because since 2000 there has been a significant increase in the number of women in prison (Franke et al., 2019), so it is relevant to develop programs tailored to their needs. Furthermore, the results of this study could be used by Gendarmería de Chile to incorporate the influence of childhood victimization experiences into psychosocial intervention protocols for addressing the mental health problems of inmates. Additionally, there is a need to promote a psychosocial approach to these experiences in the treatment of inmates. In this regard, psychosocial interventions should be trauma-informed, taking into account all available evidence regarding the relationship between child victimization experiences, trauma, and the psychosocial adjustment of incarcerated individuals.

The extent of child victimization among incarcerated persons highlights the need for tailored assessment and treatment, as well as the requirement to optimize prevention and intervention campaigns at the community level by considering victimization experiences individually and in conjoined (White & Frisch-Scott, 2022).

Conclusion

In summary, this study examined the association between different types of childhood victimization and mental health problems in adulthood in persons deprived of liberty. We found that all the victimizations considered were related to the assessed mental health problems. However, caregiver victimization and sexual victimization had the strongest influence on mental health problems, along with being female. These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence on this topic while suggesting future research to explore the role of distinct types of victimization in different contexts and their cumulative effects on mental health problems. In addition, our results could be useful for professionals involved in psychosocial intervention in the Chilean penitentiary system.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

We thank to Chilean Gendarmerie for the support in this research and all participants in the study.

Correction (September 2024):

Article updated to correct the entire abstract section

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support foor publication o/or publication of this article: This work was funded by the “Programa de fortalecimiento de Grupos de Investigación UTA-2023” Project #3789-23 of the University of Tarpacá, Chile.

ORCID iDs

Cristián Pinto-Cortez

Diego Arias Diaz-Faes

Data Availability Statement

Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

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