Elsevier

Child Abuse & Neglect

Volume 32, Issue 8, August 2008, Pages 785-796
Child Abuse & Neglect

Childhood victimization and lifetime revictimization

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2007.12.006Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

To examine the fundamental hypothesis that childhood victimization leads to increased vulnerability for subsequent (re)victimization in adolescence and adulthood and, if so, whether there are differences in rates of experiencing traumas and victimizations by gender, race/ethnicity, and type of childhood abuse and/or neglect.

Methods

Using a prospective cohort design, participants are individuals with documented cases of childhood physical and sexual abuse and neglect from the years 1967 through 1971 and a matched control group. Both groups were interviewed in-person (mean age 39.5 years) in 2000–2002 using a new instrument to assess lifetime trauma and victimization history.

Results

Abused and neglected individuals reported a higher number of traumas and victimization experiences than controls and all types of childhood victimization (physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect) were associated with increased risk for lifetime revictimization. Significant group (abuse/neglect vs. control) by gender and group by race/ethnicity interactions were found. Childhood victimization increased risk for physical and sexual assault/abuse, kidnapping/stalking, and having a family friend murdered or commit suicide, but not for general traumas, witnessing trauma, or crime victimization.

Conclusions

These findings provide strong support for the need for early intervention with abused and neglected children and their families to prevent subsequent exposure to traumas and victimization experiences.

Introduction

There has been increasing interest in the phenomenon of revictimization, or the notion that individuals who experience victimization in childhood are at increased risk for subsequent victimization at some point in their lives. Most of this work has focused on victims of sexual abuse (e.g., Cloitre, Tardiff, Marzuk, Leon, & Portera, 1996; Coid et al., 2001; Maker, Kemmelmeir, & Peterson, 2001; Merrill et al., 1999; Messman & Long, 1996; Sappington, Pharr, Tunstall, & Rickert, 1997; Schaaf & McCanne, 1998). According to Arata (2002), about one-third of child sexual abuse victims reported experiencing repeated victimization and sexual abuse victims had a two to three times greater risk of adult revictimization than women without a history of child sexual abuse.

Between 1986 and 2002, there were at least 25 published studies on revictimization utilizing college student and community samples representing over 25,000 participants. Other studies have described revictimization in specialized (psychiatric inpatients and outpatients, incest group members, incest victims with dissociative disorders, AIDS/HIV clients, child sexual abuse survivors, prisoner, and female Navy recruits) or convenience samples (Irwin, 1999, Merrill et al., 1999; Messman-Moore & Long, 2002). On the other hand, at least two papers reported that victims of child sexual abuse were not at increased risk of revictimization as adults (Briere & Runtz, 1987; Mandoki & Burkhart, 1989). Relatively few studies have examined whether victims of childhood physical abuse are at risk for revictimization (Cloitre et al., 1996, Coid et al., 2001; Desai, Arias, Thompson, & Basile, 2002; Schaaf & McCanne, 1998). Even fewer have focused on childhood neglect.

Most studies have utilized cross-sectional designs, although some follow-up studies exist. For example, Faller (1991) followed sexually abused girls and boys (initial ages 2–16 years old) who had been identified by child protection agencies and referred for diagnostic and treatment services and found that 22% had been re-referred during the three years after the initial contact. Gidycz, Coble, Latham, and Layman (1993) reported that early sexual victimization and prior maladjustment (anxiety and depression) were risk factors for adult victimization experiences in college women followed from the beginning to the end of the semester. West, Williams, and Siegel (2000) studied 113 Black women ages 11–31 with documented histories of childhood sexual abuse and found that 30% of the women reported being revictimized in the 17 years following the initial event. Far fewer follow-up studies have described the subsequent victimization of physically abused or neglected children, even for relatively short time periods (Fryer & Miyoshi, 1994; Levy, Markovic, Chaudry, Ahart, & Torres, 1995).

Studies describing similarities or differences in revictimization risk by gender or race/ethnicity are also rare (Desai et al., 2002), yet there is reason to expect that rates and patterns of revictimization may vary. Some writers (Carmen, Ricker, & Mills, 1984; Jaffe, Wolfe, Wilson, & Zak, 1986; Widom, 1989b) have suggested that abused females are prone to become attached to men who victimize them, whereas abused males are thought to externalize and victimize others. However, since males and females are not distributed equally across different types of abuse and neglect (i.e., more females are sexually abused), gender differences in response to maltreatment may be a function of the type of maltreatment, rather than gender.

Findings from research on combat and hurricane stressors suggest that exposure to similar stressors may have a different impact on African-Americans compared to White Americans (Green, Grace, Lindy, & Leonard, 1990; Kulka et al., 1990; Lonigan, Shannon, Finch, Daugherty, & Taylor, 1991; Norris, 1992). Wyatt, 1991, Wyatt, 1992 reported that African-American women are less likely than White women to disclose abuse incidents and that this nondisclosure may be associated with an increased vulnerability to revictimization, as a lasting consequence of sexual abuse. In a study of female college students (Urquiza & Goodlin-Jones, 1994), among those with a history of childhood sexual abuse, African-American women appeared to be at greatest risk for revictimization, compared to the Whites and Latinas. However, Norris (1992) has cautioned that any possible differential responses to trauma may be a function of a number of factors, including exposure to more severe traumatic events, the buffering effect of higher socioeconomic status for Whites, and the effects of prejudice, hostility, and neglect to heighten the effects of trauma for African-Americans.

In sum, most of the literature on revictimization has been cross-sectional in design, relies almost exclusively on retrospective self-reports of childhood victimization, focuses on sexual abuse and sexual assault, and includes primarily females. Thus, there are a number of gaps in knowledge. Since both victimization and revictimization experiences have typically been assessed concurrently (cross-sectional designs), it is unknown whether revictimization rates for childhood sexual abuse victims followed prospectively into adulthood will be higher than non-victims from similar backgrounds. There is a need for information about the extent to which victims of childhood physical abuse and neglect are also at risk for subsequent revictimization. Relatively little is known about the potential revictimization of abused and neglected males and, hence, little is known about potential gender differences in rates of revictimization. Since most of the existing literature has focused on samples of White non-Hispanic individuals, we know relatively little about risk of revictimization in non-White or Hispanic samples and about potential differences in revictimization rates by race or ethnicity.

This paper is the first report of a prospective and long-term assessment of the relationship between childhood victimization and lifetime revictimization, using substantiated cases of childhood physical and sexual abuse and neglect from the years 1967 through 1971 and a comparison group matched on the basis of age, sex, race/ethnicity, and approximate family social class at the time. This paper seeks to test the overall hypothesis that childhood victimization contributes to increased vulnerability for subsequent (re)victimization in adolescence and adulthood, by comparing the extent to which victims of childhood abuse and neglect are at greater risk for subsequent victimization compared to non-abused and non-neglected peers. We expect differences in the extent of subsequent victimization experiences by gender, race/ethnicity, and type of childhood abuse or neglect. Specifically, we ask six basic questions:

  • (1)

    Are abused and neglected children at greater risk for later (re)victimization than matched controls?

  • (2)

    Are there differences in risk of revictimization for abused and neglected children by gender?

  • (3)

    Are there differences in risk of revictimization for abused and neglected children of different ethnic backgrounds?

  • (4)

    Do rates of revictimization vary by type of child abuse or neglect?

  • (5)

    Compared to controls, does the pattern of risk of (re)victimization for abused and neglected children change over the life course?

  • (6)

    Is the risk of revictimization for victims of childhood abuse and neglect broad, encompassing multiple forms of trauma, or relatively specific, affecting only certain types of traumas or victimization experiences?

Section snippets

Sample and procedures

The data used here are from a large research project based on a prospective cohort design study in which abused and/or neglected children were matched with non-abused and non-neglected children and followed prospectively into young adulthood. Cases were drawn from the records of county juvenile and adult criminal courts in a metropolitan area in the Midwest during the years 1967 through 1971. The rationale for identifying the abused and neglected group was that their cases were serious enough

Are abused and neglected children at greater risk for later (re)victimization than matched controls?

By age 40, almost all of the participants in the study (n = 882, 98.9%) reported having experienced at least one trauma or victimization experience in their lifetime and this percent did not differ between abused and neglected individuals and controls (99.0% and 98.7%, respectively; χ2 = .13, p = .71). However, the number of traumas or victimization experiences reported by participants differed significantly, with abused and neglected individuals reporting a higher total number of traumas (M = 15.03, SE

Discussion

Using a prospective cohort design in which a group of physically and sexually abused and neglected children and matched controls were followed up into adulthood (approximate age 40) and interviewed, these results provide strong support for the fundamental hypothesis that childhood victimization leads to increased risk for lifetime revictimization. That is, across a number of types of traumas and victimization experiences, abused and neglected children are at increased risk of revictimization,

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Julie Kaplow for helpful comments on an earlier draft and to Elizabeth Kahn for help in the preparation of this manuscript.

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  • Cited by (0)

    This research was supported in part by grants from NIMH (MH49467 and MH58386), NIJ (86-IJ-CX-0033 and 89-IJ-CX-0007), NICHD (HD40774), NIDA (DA17842 and DA10060), and NIAAA (AA09238 and AA11108). Points of view are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of the United States Department of Justice.

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