The role of childhood abuse and troubles-related trauma in adult reoffending

Background: Existing research on the relationship between childhood trauma and reoffending often focus on adolescent populations or risk of offending. This paper will review the role of childhood abuse and troubles-related in adult reoffending.

Objectives: The first part of this paper will outline a systematic review exploring the association between childhood physical and sexual abuse and its prediction on reoffending rates in adult populations. The second part of the paper will outline an investigation into whether childhood or troubles-related trauma among 100 offenders who have served a life sentence in Northern Ireland was associated with reoffending patterns.

Results: A narrative synthesis of the existing literature suggested childhood physical and sexual abuse are generally high among the prison population and tend to be even higher among those who reoffend. In the empirical study the most common form of childhood trauma were emotional abuse and/or emotional neglect (43%), troubles-related trauma (43%) and physical abuse (40%). Only age (OR: .91) and troubles-related trauma (OR: 5.57) emerged as significant predictors of general reoffending at any time post release. Childhood physical abuse was related to an increase in the odds of violently reoffending, (OR: 4.09).

Conclusions: Childhood abuse was commonly reported in the prison population and those who reoffend. Conflict-related trauma significantly predicted general and violent reoffending among offenders with previous violent convictions. These findings suggest that prisons should consider trauma-informed assessment and rehabilitation of offenders.