The Crime Of Child Abuse - 1184 Words

Crime. It comes in many forms, shapes and sizes; assault, battery, false imprisonment, kidnapping and homicide, just to name a few. Crime is no stranger to anyone because it isn’t prejudice. Human beings commit crimes for many different reasons; perhaps a person commits a crime such as shoplifting out of desperation, especially when medications or food is in shortage, but what are other motivations for why individuals commit crimes? Researchers have been gathering facts, for years, to determine what kinds of people commit crimes and why they do. One adult crime that is committed by both males and females is the crime of child abuse. â€Å"Child abuse† has many deviations when it comes to its definition because it can be categorized in†¦show more content†¦Males and females alike commit this crime but is it more common in one sex more than the other? Is one gender more susceptible to abuse than the other? According to the Journal of Family Violence; â€Å"Female juvenile delinquents were more frequently victim of sexual and physical abuse and had a history of neglect and maltreatment than male juvenile offenders (Thornberry et al. 2012). The article goes on to state that male juvenile offenders committed more sexual offenses and felony offenses against people. Female juvenile offenders reported higher levels of having committed misdemeanor offenses against person and violence that were not included in criminal history. A history of sexual abuse was related to sexual offending, while a history of physical abuse was related to violent offending. The â€Å"cycle of violence† theory describes how when a person is a victim of child maltreatment, then they develop a risk factor for being a perpetrator of maltreatment later in life. Many adults suffer from post-traumatic stress symptoms and disorders, which cause them to commit crimes that were, once committed against them and because of this, abuse becomes the norm for them (Bandura 1973; 1977). Findings conclude that female delinquents were more often victims of sexual and physical abuse and more often had a history of neglect and maltreatment than male juvenile offenders. So does this mean that women commit child abuse more often than men? Well, when it comes