Chaotic Homes, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and Serious Delinquency: Differential Effects by Race and Ethnicity

Abstract

Disparate research has shown that exposure to chaotic homes and adverse childhood experiences are associated with antisocial behavior, but these lines of research have not converged. The current study explored the additive effects of exposure to chaotic homes and three forms of childhood abuse and their association with serious delinquency among 2,520 adjudicated delinquents from a large Southern state. Chaotic homes and physical, sexual, and emotional abuse had differential effects on homicide offending, sexual offending, and serious person/property offending and in some models; these effects were specific to whites, Hispanics, or African Americans. In contrast, chaotic homes and sexual abuse history was positively associated with sexual offending but negatively associated with other serious delinquency across models. Chaotic homes are a construct deserving of further criminological study to better articulate how and why various adverse childhood experiences translate into serious delinquency and violence.

Keywords:

• Chaotic home
• adverse childhood experiences
• delinquency
• violence
• juvenile delinquents
• race and ethnicity

Disclosure statement

Matt DeLisi receives consulting income and travel expenses in criminal and civil litigation relating to criminological and forensic assessment of criminal offenders, receives editorial remuneration from Elsevier, and receives royalty income from Cambridge University Press, John Wiley & Sons, Jones & Bartlett, Kendall/Hunt, McGraw-Hill, Palgrave Macmillan, Routledge, Sage, University of Texas Press, and Bridgepoint Education. No direct remuneration is associated with the current study.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Farrington, Loeber, Stallings, and Homish’s (2018) analyses of data from the Pittsburgh Youth Study are illustrative. In their study of early risk factors for homicide offending and homicide victimizations, Farrington et al. found that being from a “broken family” increased homicide perpetration by 4.4 greater odds and increased homicide victimization by 5.2 greater odds. Other household factors including welfare receipt and large family size also conferred increased odds of both homicide offending and victimization.

2 Although indicative of a noxious environment, not all research has shown that chaotic home is associated with increased likelihood of offending. For instance, Trulson, Caudill, Haerle, and DeLisi (2012) found that chaotic home had no association with recidivism, rearrest, and felony rearrest among a large sample of serious, violent, and chronic juvenile delinquents.

3 Unfortunately, we lacked data on whether the adverse childhood experience occurred during childhood or adolescence. Prior research has shown that the timing of abuse and neglect experiences has manifold behavioral outcomes (DeLisi, Drury, & Elbert, 2019; Kaplow & Widom, 2007; Keiley, Howe, Dodge, Bates, & Pettit, 2001; Thornberry, Ireland, & Smith, 2001). For example, Thornberry et al. (2010) reported that childhood-limited maltreatment was linked to drug problems, depressive symptoms, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors whereas maltreatment occurring during adolescence was more broadly problematic and linked to arrest, incarceration, self-reported offending, violence, polysubstance use, and risky behaviors among data from the Rochester Youth Development Study.

4 Out-of-home placements are a summary measure of juvenile justice system placements and child welfare system placements, the former are an example of the youth as offender and the latter are an example of the youth as a victim. Juveniles that have involvement in both juvenile justice and child welfare systems—also known as crossover youth—have complex behavioral histories of adverse childhood experiences. Some researchers have shown that ACEs do not have effects on recidivism other than through child welfare placement (Baglivio et al., 2016). Others have shown that youth who are placed in foster care and thus more likely to have been abused or neglected, for instance, are also much more likely to become chronic juvenile offenders (Yang, McCuish, & Corrado, 2017).

5 Homicide offenses included capital murder, attempted capital murder, murder, attempted murder, criminally negligent homicide, and voluntary manslaughter. Sexual offenses included aggravated sexual assault, attempted aggravated sexual assault, attempted sexual assault, and sexual assault. These contact sexual offenses include rape, rape by instrumentation, rape with a weapon, rape with codefendants, and various forms of non-intercourse sexual contact. Serious person/property offenses included aggravated robbery and attempted aggravated robbery.

6 Null findings for chaotic homes and emotional abuse among African American delinquents could arise from racial differences in the labeling and acknowledgement of emotional abuse as in fact a form of abuse (Alvidrez, 1999; Brown, 2003; Gary, 2005). The lack of a significant effect for emotional abuse among African Americans indicates the importance of cultural sensitivity in measuring this variable in future studies.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Taea Bonner

Taea Bonner is a graduating senior at Iowa State University, majoring in Criminal Justice and Sociology. She is also a Ronald E. McNair Scholar. Her research interests include adverse childhood experiences and sex crimes.

Matt DeLisi

Matt DeLisi is College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean's Professor, Coordinator of Criminal Justice Studies, Professor in the Department of Sociology, and Faculty Affiliate of the Center for the Study of Violence at Iowa State University. A renowned scholar, Professor DeLisi is one of the most influential and prolific criminologists in the world with over 400 scholarly publications on an array of topics in the social, behavioral, and forensic sciences. In 2012, Dr. DeLisi received the prestigious Fellow Award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences for distinguished teaching and research achievement. In 2019, Dr. DeLisi received the prestigious Fellow Award from the Association for Psychological Science for sustained and outstanding distinguished contributions to psychological science. He is the only scientist in the world who is a Fellow of both organizations.

Gloria Jones-Johnson

Gloria Jones-Johnson is University Professor of Sociology with research expertise in social inequality and social psychology. She is a faculty affiliate of the Women and Gender Studies and Gerontology programs and has funded research projects on microaggressions among minority students and women and alcohol consumption.

Jonathan W. Caudill

Jonathan W. Caudill is a professor and Director of the Master of Criminal Justice Program at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. He also serves as Co-Editor for Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice. His research interests traverse offender behavior and formal social control.

Chad Trulson

Chad R. Trulson is Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of North Texas. He also serves as co-editor of Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice.