Re: CASA report

[Chris Browning <cbrow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 05:09 PM 2/25/99 EST, you wrote:
>I have not read the CASA report and I am not familiar with their
>findings, but regarding your question about the association of
>childhood victimization and adult offending there is evidence
>to consider.  Cathy Widom is well known for her prospective study
>examining various forms of childhood victimization and later adult
>offenses. I don't have the citations at the moment but I'm sure
>you all have them or can find them.  Widom found a small effect
>of physical abuse and neglect on later violent offending, but as
>for sexual abuse...there was no relation to adult sexual offending.

I'm not sure this is an appropriate characterization of Widom's findings.
I'm referring specifically to "Criminal Consequences of Childhood Sexual
Victimization" in Child Abuse & Neglect 18(4).  In this study, Widom found
that sexual abuse victims were 4.7 times as likely to be arrested for "any
sex crime" (including incest, child molestation, rape, sodomy, assault and
battery with intent to gratify, among others) when compared with controls.
Physical abuse and neglect were also associated with this outcome.
Physical abuse, but not sexual abuse, was significantly associated with an
adult arrest for "rape or sodomy."  From these findings she speculates that
"the criminogenic effect associated with sexual offending may not result
from sexual abuse uniquely, but rather may be associated with the trauma
and stress of these early childhood experiences or society's response to
the event" (313).    

The claim that there is no "sexual cycle of violence" should not be
interpreted to mean that sexual abuse is not associated with adult sexual
offending.  Rather, Widom's evidence suggests (to her) that the mechanism
linking sexual abuse with adult sexual offending does not produce uniquely
severe or distinct outcomes when compared with other forms of maltreatment.
 This finding indicates that we may not need a specific theory of the
effects of sexual abuse.  Sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect may be
theoretically equivalent in terms of their impact, pointing to the
possibility of developing a more powerful general theory of the effects of
maltreatment.  

I agree, however, that it is far too early to make any strong claims
regarding the pattern of empirical association between maltreatment
experiences and the subsequent likelihood of adult sexual offending.  

Chris Browning






>At a conference I asked Widom about this issue, to which she
>responded that there appears to be no sexual cycle of violence.
>A couple of years ago there was a GAO report examining the sexual
>cycle of violence, which examined Widom's data, data from Linda Williams,
>and some other data, and their conclusion as well was that there is
>no support for the idea of a sexual cycle of violence.
>
>For clinicians, of course, it is possible to have a preponderance of clients
>who have experienced abuse and report abusing others.  However, the
>clinician must remember that there are distinct selection biases at work
>in determining which types of people come to you (or are brought to you)
>for treatment.  For some individuals, childhood sexual abuse may be a
>factor in later sexual offenses.  But for the general population,
>this does not appear to be a risk factor.
>
>
>Evan R. Harrington, Ph.D.
>
>
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Christopher R. Browning
NICHD Postdoctoral Fellow
Population Research Center
NORC and The University of Chicago
1155 E. 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637

Phone: 773/256-6299
Email: cbrow@spc.uchicago.edu

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