Assessing the Victimizaton-Offending Hypothesis of Sexual and Non-Sexual Violence in a Nationally Representative Sample of Incarcerated Men in the United States: Implications for Trauma-Informed Practice in Correctional Settings

Abstract

Rates of exposure to sexual and non-sexual physical violence and other adverse childhood events are greater among people who are incarcerated with convictions for offenses related to sexual and non-sexual violence compared to other incarcerated populations and the general community. Few studies have differentiated which types of prior adverse experiences are greatest predictors of sexual and non-sexual violent offenses. The following study investigated associations between experiencing sexual abuse as a child or adult; experiencing non-sexual physical violence during childhood, adulthood, or both; having a caretaker who uses drugs; being in foster care; growing up in socioeconomically marginalized conditions; and the likelihood of reporting a prior physical or sexual conviction. The sample consisted of 13,604 men incarcerated in state and federal prisons in the United States. Multinomial regression models compared convictions for sexual offenses and non-sexual violent offenses to all other crimes. A model also compared sexual offenses to non-sexual violent offenses to differentiate between types of adverse childhood experiences associated with sexual versus non-sexual violent offending. Models adjusted for race/ethnicity, education, and age. Results suggest that exposure to violence during childhood was significantly and violence during adulthood was insignificantly associated with increased risk of conviction for a non-sexual physical offense. Sexual violence victimization as a child only was associated with increased risk of conviction for sexual violence perpetration during adulthood. Foster care involvement was associated with increased risk of being convicted for a non-sexual violent offense. Findings suggest that different traumatic pathways may differentiate types of aggression in adulthood. Future research must evaluate if trauma-informed approaches should be catered to address the unique effects of sexual and non-sexual victimization and the perpetration of different types of aggression in adulthood.