Evidencing predictors of adolescent to parent violence re-offending through linkage of police and health records

Abstract

Current knowledge about the characteristics of adolescents involved in recidivist adolescent to parent violence offending remains limited. This study employed more than 50,000 linked administrative police (from birth) and health (from age five) data events to examine predictors of adolescent to parent violence recidivism in a geographically-distinct case series of 775 Australian adolescents. The predictive association between adverse childhood experiences, health and police involvement related characteristics and frequency of recidivism was found to vary by sex and level of exposure to parental intimate partner violence. Events occurring before an adolescent’s first offence, including sustained exposure to adverse childhood events and IPV exposure combined with sexual offence victimization, amplified the frequency of re-offending. Developmental life-course trajectories involving family violence verbal arguments, and other antisocial behaviors in mid to late adolescence, had a stronger predictive association with the frequency of re-offending. These results highlighted several key intervention points with adolescents and families across the life course.