Helplessness and Hopelessness in Adolescents who Commit Sexual and Nonsexual Crimes

ABSTRACT

The authors’ purpose was to test the relationship of helplessness and hopefulness to experienced trauma, as well to explore the role of these emotions to sexual and nonsexual criminal behaviors among 332 residential youths adjudicated for sexual crimes. All subtypes of trauma measured were positively correlated with helplessness, whereas hopelessness was not associated with sexual or physical abuse. Helplessness was associated with the severity of sexual crimes, as well as the commission of multiple nonsexual crimes. Hopelessness was not associated to any sexual crime characteristics and only associated with general delinquency and property damage. In the regression models, controlling for trauma, helplessness predicted sexual and nonsexual criminality, and hopelessness predicted nonsexual criminality. Implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescent sexual abuse
• delinquency
• hopefulness
• helplessness
• trauma

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. As scholars and clinicians, we prefer a positive, strengths-based framework to social science when possible (hopefulness). The literature on hope largely frames the problem in terms of a deficit (hopelessness). Throughout this manuscript, the use of these terms is contextually interchangeable insofar as they describe a single concept (hope) in terms of either its presence or absence.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adam Brown

Adam Brown is assistant professor of social work at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, City University of New York.

Melissa D. Grady

Melissa D. Grady is associate professor of social work at the National Catholic School of Social Service at the Catholic University of America.