Unraveling the Link Between Trauma and Delinquency

• Author: Keith Morgen,Tina Maschi,Carolyn A. Bradley
• Date: 01 April 2008
• DOI: 10.1177/1541204007305527
• Published date: 01 April 2008
• Subject Matter: Articles

136

Unraveling the Link Between

Trauma and Delinquency

The Mediating Role of Negative Affect

and Delinquent Peer Exposure

Tina Maschi

Fordham University

Carolyn A. Bradley

Keith Morgen

Monmouth University

The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of negative affect and delinquent peer

exposure on the link between trauma and juvenile delinquency. Using a nationally representative

sample of 2,065 males, a secondary data analysis was conducted to test a mediation model based

on general strain theory. Mediation analyses revealed that negative affect (i.e., anger) and delinquent

peer exposure exerted an intervening influence on the pathway between trauma and delinquency.

These findings have important implications for collaboration efforts among the child welfare,

social service, mental health, and criminal justice fields. Understanding the multiple pathways

that connect trauma to delinquency can help to develop or improve prevention, assessment,

and intervention efforts geared toward helping at-risk youth, their families, and their communities.

Keywords: anger; delinquent peer exposure; juvenile delinquency; mediation; negative affect;

trauma; youth violence

Research has consistently shown that youth, especially boys, who experience some type of

trauma, are at an elevated risk of juvenile delinquency (Hoffman & Cerbone, 1999; Smith

& Thornberry, 1995). Approximately one half of the male victims of child maltreatment,

defined to include physical or sexual abuse and neglect, later became juvenile delinquents

(Lemmon, 1999; Smith & Thornberry, 1995; Widom, 1989a). In addition to being a victim of

violence, youth who experience stressful life events, such as parents divorcing, losing a loved

one, and living in a violent home or neighborhood, may be at a higher risk of engaging in

antisocial behavior (Eitle & Turner, 2002; Hoffman & Cerbone, 1999). Using mostly male

samples, the link between trauma and delinquency was first documented in the early 1960s

and has been reconfirmed during the past four decades by more than two dozen studies

Youth Violence and

Juvenile Justice

Volume 6 Number 2

April 2008 136-157

© 2008 Sage Publications

10.1177/1541204007305527

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Authors’Note: This research study was partially supported by a Grant In Creativity from Monmouth University.

We especially want to thank the anonymous reviewers of this manuscript for their helpful comments. This research

project began while Dr. Maschi was a doctoral student at Rutgers University. Please direct correspondence to

Tina Maschi, PhD, LCSW,ACSW, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Social Service, Fordham University,

113 West 10th St., New York, NY 10023; e-mail: maschi@fordham.edu.

Maschi et al. / Unraveling the Link 137

(e.g., Falshaw, Browne, & Hollin, 1996; Widom, 1989b). A review of this literature suggests

that the types of trauma linked to delinquency may range in magnitude from minor to

severe stressors that may occur at any developmental stage in childhood and/or adolescence

(Maschi, 2006).

Although this association between trauma and delinquency is commonly recognized, very

little is known about the mediating processes that engage or disengage this link. What has yet

to be fully explored is how social and psychological and/or emotional correlates of trauma

and delinquency, such as delinquent peer exposure and negative affect (e.g., anger and depres-

sion), function as a mediating influence on the trauma–delinquency link. This deficit in

knowledge can be partially attributed to the lack of theory-driven research that explores the

intervening factors that exacerbate or ameliorate the connection between trauma and delin-

quency among youth. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to explore the intervening

processes of negative affect and delinquent peer exposure on the link between trauma and

delinquency among male youth by testing a conceptual model based on general strain theory.

The study uses a nationally representative sample of 2,065 male youth and information pro-

vided from self-report survey data of adolescents and their parents. The research questions

guiding this investigation were as follows: (a) Can general strain theory explain the link

between trauma and delinquency? (b) Does negative affect and delinquent peer exposure

mediate the link between trauma and delinquency? Because male youth are responsible for

the majority of juvenile crime, especially violent crime, understanding the pathways from

traumatic victimization to delinquency is an especially important area to pursue (Lemmon,

1999; Snyder, 2006). Uncovering the pathways between trauma and delinquency can assist us

in identifying those youth who are most at risk of delinquency. It can also help us to explain

why only some youth become delinquent whereas others remain resilient to the adverse

effects of trauma. These explanations can then be used to develop prevention and intervention

efforts geared toward assisting at-risk youth, their families, and their communities disengage

the link between trauma and delinquency.

This article is organized as follows: It begins with a review of the literature on the link

between trauma and juvenile delinquency and how negative affect and delinquent peer

exposure affect this relationship. Directly following, the secondary data analysis methods

that were used to test the study hypotheses are reviewed. Next, the results of the mediation

analyses for the link between trauma and property and violent offending are explicated.

Finally, the implications of these findings for multidisciplinary work with at-risk youth and

their families and communities are discussed.

Literature Review

From a review of the literature a pattern of relationships among trauma, negative affect,

delinquent peer exposure, and juvenile delinquency emerges. Although consistent evidence

has been found for a direct link between trauma and juvenile delinquency, socioemotional

factors, such as negative affect and delinquent peer exposure, also have been shown to be

influential with this connection (Brezina, 1996, 1998; Widom, 1989a). Negative affect

(or affect dysregulation) and delinquent peer exposure have been found to be an outcome or