Child Maltreatment and Offending Behavior: Gender-Specific Effects and Pathways.

Although expected, distinct gender-specific trajectories from early victimization to later offending have not been well explored. Consequently, this study assessed the association between child maltreatment (ages 0-11) and offending behavior within gender-specific models. Prospectively collected data, including official measures of maltreatment and offending, derived from the Chicago Longitudinal Study, a panel study of 1,539 low-income minority participants, Multivariate probit analyses revealed that maltreatment significantly predicted delinquency for males but not females yet forged a significant relation to adult crime for both genders. Exploratory confirmatory and comparative analyses suggested that mechanisms linking maltreatment to adult crime primarily differed across gender. For males, childhood-era externalizing behavior and school commitment along with adolescent-era socioemotional skills, delinquency, and educational attainment fully explained the maltreatment-crime nexus. For females, childhood-era parent factors along with adolescent indicators of externalizing behavior, cognitive performance, mobility and educational attainment partially mediated the maltreatment-crime relation. Implications of results were explored.