From Maltreatment to Delinquency: Service Trajectories After a First Intervention of Child Protection Services

Abstract

The relationship between maltreatment in childhood and delinquency in adolescence is recognized. However, the data available do not reveal what proportion of children under the supervision of child protection services (CPS) later transfer to youth legal services, nor the sequence of services provided by these two systems. This study sketches a preliminary portrait of Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) incidence among Quebec children and adolescents as a consequence of a first crime after initial CPS case closure (N = 14,252). It quantifies the scope of the phenomenon and identifies the best predictors of YCJA incidence from among the administrative data available. Survival analysis revealed a 15.4% YCJA incidence for the entire cohort in the five and a half years following termination of initial intervention; boys between 12 and 17 years old when their initial CPS cases were closed were at the greatest risk (27.2%).

Keywords::

• Child protection services
• delinquency
• predictors of delinquency
• survival analysis
• service trajectories

Funding

The authors thanks Valorisation Recherche Québec and le Centre de recherche of Centre jeunesse de Montréal–Institut universitaire for their financial support.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Catherine Laurier

Catherine Laurier, PhD, is a Research Scientist with the Research and Expertise Center for Youth in Difficulty at the CIUSS Centre-Sud-de-l'Ile-de-Montreal and Affiliated Professor of Psychology at University of Sherbrooke and in Criminology at the University of Montreal, Canada.

Sonia Hélie

Sonia Hélie, PhD, is a Research Scientist with the Research and Expertise Center for Youth in Difficulty at the CIUSS Centre-Sud-de-l'Ile-de-Montreal and Affiliated Professor of Psychology at University of Quebec at Montreal and University of Montreal, Canada.

Catherine Pineau-Villeneuve

Catherine Pineau-Villeneuve, M.Sc., is a Doctorate Candidate in Criminology at University of Montreal.

Marie-Noële Royer

Marie-Noële Royer, M.Sc., is a Research Professional with the School of Criminology at University of Montreal.