Juvenile crime, aggression and delinquency after sexual abuse - A longitudinal study

This longitudinal study sought to examine whether sexual abuse is associated with subsequent juvenile offending; aggression and delinquency after controlling for a range of confounding variables. The study group consisted of children with substantiated sexual abuse who presented to hospitals in Sydney, Australia. Nine years after intake, 38 abused young people and 68 non-abused young people were interviewed and assessed. Interviews were also conducted with parents. After adjusting far age, sex, socio-economic status and whether the child was living with biological parents at intake or not, a history of child sexual abuse predicted self-reported criminal behaviour and parents' rating of the young person's aggressiveness. This indicates that child sexual abuse is an independent risk factor for offending and delinquent behaviour.