DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES IN THE IMPACT OF CHILD MALTREATMENT ON LATER DELINQUENCY AND DRUG USE*

Developmental psychopathology emphasizes the impact that early childhood maltreatment has on adolescent and early adult development. The life‐course perspective, however, emphasizes more proximal events—adolescent maltreatment, for example—as developmentally disruptive. Prior research suggests that childhood maltreatment is a risk factor for adolescent delinquency and drug use. However, the results appear to depend on a loose definition of childhood. This study utilizes a four‐category maltreatment classification—never, childhood‐only, adolescence‐only, and persistent—to re‐examine the maltreatment‐delinquency relationship. Using data from the Rochester Youth Development Study, we find no relationship between childhood‐only maltreatment and adolescent delinquency or drug use; yet, we do find a consistent impact of adolescence‐only and persistent maltreatment on these outcomes.     

FATHERS AND CHILD ABUSE ALLEGATIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF PARENTAL SEPARATION AND DIVORCE

Fathers' role in child abuse in the context of parental separation and divorce has been the subject of continuous stereotyping over the last several decades. This article examines the stereotypes projected against current research, particularly findings from a study of an experimental family court program designed for the better management of residence and contact disputes where child abuse allegations had been made. These findings are discussed in regard to similar studies internationally. While the two prevailing but opposing stereotypes of fathers' role in child abuse in this context were not confirmed by the research, aspects of the stereotypes regarding fathers' views and mothers' views of each other were supported. Problems associated with the paradoxical position of fathers as the most frequently alleged perpetrators of abuse, the most frequently substantiated perpetrators, and also the most frequently unsubstantiated perpetrators tend not to be fully addressed by the current court process for these disputes.     

THE POLICE AND CHILD ABUSE: AN ANALYSIS OF POLICE DECISIONS TO REPORT ILLEGAL BEHAVIOR*

This research examines police decisions to report child abuse. A questionnaire was administered to 142 law enforcement officers at both municipal and county police agencies in a southern county. Vignettes were used to determine the response of police to several abuse events that differ in their nature and seriousness. Other items measured include dogmatism, knowledge of the reporting law, and experience reporting child abuse. The results indicate that the primary contributors to police decisions are definition of the behavior as serious, perception that the behavior is criminal, and race of the family. Conclusions and inferences are made regarding how these perceptions are formed and their impact on police discretion.     

OUT-OF-COURT STATEMENTS BY VICTIMS OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE TO MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAMS: A CONFRONTATION CLAUSE ANALYSIS

Acknowledging the rapid growth of child sexual abuse in the United States, this Note advocates for the recognition of a limited exception to the blanket-hearsay ban on out-of-court statements made by unavailable declarants set out by the Supreme Court in Crawford v. Washington . In order to protect a criminal defendant's Sixth Amendment confrontation right, Crawford requires that hearsay evidence that is "testimonial" in nature be deemed inadmissible if the witness is unavailable and the defendant does not have a prior opportunity to cross-examine the witness against him. However, Crawford noted that, where nontestimonial hearsay is at issue, cross-examination may not be necessary. Accordingly, where a child sexual abuse victim makes statements during a structured or semi-structured forensic interview to a member of a multidisciplinary team, these statements should be deemed nontestimonial and thus admitted into evidence, without requiring cross-examination of the child. Allowing for this exception to the general hearsay ban in Crawford is not only consistent with current precedent, but it is also warranted to promote public policy and to curb the negative impact such abuse has on society.     

KEY LINKAGES BETWEEN CHILD WELFARE AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT: SOCIAL FUNCTIONING IMPROVEMENTS AND CLIENT SATISFACTION IN A FAMILY DRUG TREATMENT COURT*

This article summarizes early findings regarding social functioning and client satisfaction from a longitudinal study of women receiving treatment in a family drug treatment court located in the Midwestern United States (N = 33). Drug treatment court participants were interviewed at program entry and when they had completed 6 months of treatment. Family drug court participants reported significant improvements in employment status and increases in earned income after 6 months of treatment. Respondents also reported improved social functioning and high overall levels of satisfaction with treatment. Findings and implications for future research are discussed.     

THE FOSTER CARE OMBUDSMAN: APPLYING AN INTERNATIONAL CONCEPT TO HELP PREVENT INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE OF AMERICA'S FOSTER YOUTH

Children today are often abused while in foster care, undermining the theoretical goal of the modern foster care system: to create a temporary, safe, homelike setting to protect and nurture children who are unable to live with their biological parents due to various reasons such as abuse, neglect, or abandonment. Often this abuse is worse than the type for which they were removed from their parents’ care in the first place. First examining the reasons why this complex problem exists, this Note recommends an internationally based, innovative concept as a partial solution: the foster care ombudsman. This Note explains the concept of an ombudsman and demonstrates how it can be particularly helpful to foster children, highlighting existing child welfare ombudsman offices in California, Rhode Island, and New Jersey, as well as international approaches. It also illustrates how a foster care ombudsman can complement class action litigation of foster care abuse claims.     

SPARE THE CHILD AND HIT THE POCKET: TOWARD A JURISPRUDENCE ON DOMESTIC ABUSE AS A QUANTUM FACTOR IN FINANCIAL OUTCOMES ON RELATIONSHIP BREAKDOWN

Should domestic abuse, rightly condemned so often by the family courts, be a factor in the financial outcome on relationship breakdown? If so, how should it be taken into account? As a pure factor of economic loss? As part of either negative contribution by one or the greater positive contribution by the other? Only if exceptional violence? Or as part of society's condemnation of domestic abuse? What difference is there between abuse which has a direct financial impact, for example, on future earning or needs and abuse which has no obvious outward financial impact? If there were to be any compensatory element, how does this fit in with other quantum factors? This article looks at developments on this issue in a number of countries, to share lessons learned, consider some of the problems of introducing abuse as a quantum factor, and start to consider a jurisprudence on when it is and is not appropriate as a factor, with a view to encouraging a wider debate.     

RACE,CODE OF THE STREET,AND VIOLENT DELINQUENCY: A MULTILEVEL INVESTIGATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD STREET CULTURE AND INDIVIDUAL NORMS OF VIOLENCE*

The study outlined in this article drew on Elijah Anderson's (1999) code of the street perspective to examine the impact of neighborhood street culture on violent delinquency. Using data from more than 700 African American adolescents, we examined 1) whether neighborhood street culture predicts adolescent violence above and beyond an adolescent's own street code values and 2) whether neighborhood street culture moderates individual-level street code values on adolescent violence. Consistent with Anderson's hypotheses, neighborhood street culture significantly predicts violent delinquency independent of individual-level street code effects. Additionally, neighborhood street culture moderates individual-level street code values on violence in neighborhoods where the street culture is widespread. In particular, the effect of street code values on violence is enhanced in neighborhoods where the street culture is endorsed widely.     

OFFENDER–VICTIM INTERACTION AND CRIME EVENT OUTCOMES: MODUS OPERANDI AND VICTIM EFFECTS ON THE RISK OF INTRUSIVE SEXUAL OFFENSES AGAINST CHILDREN*

Criminological research has shown the relevance of examining offender–victim interaction and related factors to understand crime event outcomes. In sexual offenses against children, an obvious lack of knowledge exists regarding this issue. From a criminological perspective, we seek to improve our understanding of the offender–victim interaction in sexual offenses against children and, in particular, what factors might increase the risk of a more intrusive offense. We argue that modus operandi strategies play a central role in crime event outcomes and examine this hypothesis with data obtained from a semistructured interview conducted with offenders. As expected, modus operandi was found to have a strong effect on crime event outcomes, especially victim participation during sexual episodes. Victim effects also emerged from the analyses. Specifically, a strong interaction effect between age and gender of the victim was found for victim participation, which suggests that as the victim gets older, offenders are more likely to make their victim participate in sexual episodes when abusing a male victim but are less likely to do so when abusing a female victim.     

STRICTLY LIABLE: GOVERNMENTAL USE OF THE PARENT–CHILD RELATIONSHIP AS A BASIS FOR HOLDING VICTIMS LIABLE FOR THEIR CHILD'S WITNESS TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Studies estimate that between three and ten million children in the United States witness domestic violence annually. Although studies have demonstrated a co‐occurrence of domestic violence and child abuse, there is no concrete evidence to support the assumption that a child's exposure to domestic violence increases the risk to the child of abuse or neglect. Recently the New York State Court of Appeals determined that a child's witness to abuse does not suffice, in and of itself, to show that removal of the child is necessary or that removal is in the “best interests” of the child. Programs which have developed alternatives to presumptive removal understand the importance of viewing the interests of the battered parent and children as being in accord with each other rather than in opposition. Private and government sponsored programs have demonstrated some success in protecting the parent‐child relationship, ensuring the safety of both parent and child, and increasing accountability of batterers while reducing the necessity for removals. Alternative programs are less costly to the state than foster care, and emotionally less costly to the families.     

PEER GROUP INTERVENTIONS TO REDUCE THE RISK OF DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR: A SELECTIVE REVIEW AND A NEW EVALUATION*

Evaluations of correctional treatment programs for criminal offenders and of school-based delinquency prevention programs based on Guided-Group Interaction (GGI) and similar interventions are critically reviewed. One study—the Provo Experiment—provided convincing evidence for the superiority of a community treatment program involving GGI over incarceration (for persons who would otherwise be incarcerated) and modest superiority over probation (for persons who would otherwise be assigned probation). Some evaluations of school-based prevention programs involving GGI derivatives that have been cited as supporting the efficacy of these programs are flawed and may be misleading. A new experimental evaluation of a school-based intervention based on a GGI derivative implies that it increased delinquent behavior among students exposed to it.     

REJOINDER TO GARDNER'S "COMMENTARY ON KELLY AND JOHNSTON'S 'THE ALIENATED CHILD: A REFORMULATION OF PARENTAL ALIENATION SYNDROME'"

In this reply to Richard Gardner, we outline our points of disagreement with his formulation of parental alienation syndrome (PAS), showing that his focus on the alienating parent as the primary cause of children's negative attitudes and rejecting behavior toward the other parent is overly simplistic and not supported by findings from recent empirical research. It follows that we strongly object to Gardner's recommendations for legal and mental health interventions with alienated children as well as the use of the term PAS when referring to this problem.     

COMMENTARY ON KELLY AND JOHNSTON'S "THE ALIENATED CHILD: A REFORMULATION OF PARENTAL ALIENATION SYNDROME"

In a previous issue of this journal, Joan B. Kelly and Janet R. Johnston describe their reformulation of the parental alienation syndrome (PAS). Here, I present areas in which I agree with the authors and areas in which I disagree. Particular focus is placed on these PAS-related issues: the syndrome question, PAS versus parental alienation, the medical model, custodial transfer, gender bias, DSM-IV . empirical studies, and the misapplication of PAS.     

ASSESSING THE EXTENT OF CRIME DISPLACEMENT AND DIFFUSION OF BENEFITS: A REVIEW OF SITUATIONAL CRIME PREVENTION EVALUATIONS*

Few criticisms of situational crime‐prevention (SCP) efforts are as frequent or prevalent as claims of displacement. Despite emerging evidence to the contrary, the prevailing sentiment seems to be that crime displacement is inevitable. This study examined 102 evaluations of situationally focused crime‐prevention projects in an effort to determine the extent to which crime displacement was observed. The results indicate that of the 102 studies that examined (or allowed for examination of) displacement and diffusion effects, there were 574 observations. Displacement was observed in 26 percent of those observations. The opposite of displacement, diffusion of benefit, was observed in 27 percent of the observations. Moreover, the analysis of 13 studies, which allowed for assessment of overall outcomes of the prevention project while taking into account spatial displacement and diffusion effects, revealed that when spatial displacement did occur, it tended to be less than the treatment effect, suggesting that the intervention was still beneficial. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.     

A METHODOLOGICAL ADDITION TO THE CROSS‐NATIONAL EMPIRICAL LITERATURE ON SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND HOMICIDE: A FIRST TEST OF THE POVERTY‐HOMICIDE THESIS*

Dozens of cross‐national studies of homicide have been published in the last three decades. Although nearly all these studies test for an association between inequality and homicide, no studies test for a poverty—homicide association. This absence is disconcerting given that poverty is one of the most consistent predictors of area homicide rates in the abundant empirical literature on social structure and homicide in the United States. Using a sample that coincides closely with similar recent studies, applying a proxy for poverty (infant mortality) that is commonly employed in noncriminological cross‐national research, and controlling for several common covariates (including inequality), this study provides the first test of the poverty—homicide hypothesis at the cross‐national level. The results reveal a positive and significant association between a nation's level of poverty and its homicide rate. The findings also suggest that we may need to reassess the strong conclusions about an inequality—homicide association drawn from prior studies, as this relationship disappears when poverty is included in the model.