Childhood Maltreatment Theory Paper

Currie, Janet, and Erdal Tekin. "Understanding the Cycle: Childhood Maltreatment and Future Crime." Journal of Human Resources 47.2 (2012): 509-49. Web. 24 Sept. 2014.

Child maltreatment has become a major problem within our society. Child maltreatment includes sexual, physical, and psychological abuse. Child abuse has become responsible for the majority of death caused by injuries in children older than one year of age. Child abuse not only affects the child at a young age but continues to cause harm into adulthood. Three theories are used in this article to explain the link between child abuse and delinquency. Social Control Theory, according to this article, explains that people are naturally drawn to crime but resist committing crime due to society. When children do not have bonds due to the child abuse by their parents they are more likely to commit criminal acts. Next Social Learning Theory, according to this article, states that children learn to commit violence and deviant acts from their caregivers through modeling their behavior. Children who witness violence will then change their behavior to model that of their abusive caregiver. The final theory used to show the link between child abuse and delinquency is Social Psychological Strain Theory. Social Psychological Strain Theory, according to this article, states that child

Abused and neglected children do have a higher risk of criminal behavior; however, abused and neglected children do not become criminals the majority of the time. One statistic given within this article is that between 9 and 29 percent of delinquent report being abused or neglected. The number is often thought to be a lot higher. Just because a child is abused or neglected it does not mean they will absolutely become a delinquent. There has been too much focus on absolutes when it comes to maltreated children and