Childhood Adversities and Resistant Behaviors Toward Law Enforcement Officers in a National Sample of State and Federal Inmates

Date

2015

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Police Quarterly

Abstract

An overwhelming body of literature points to a relationship between experiencing adversity during childhood and later violence in adulthood. This study addresses a gap in existing research by testing of the impact of four prior childhood adversities on resistant behaviors toward law enforcement officers. A four-level ordinal dependent variable measuring passive resistance, verbal resistance, police action resistance, and physical resistance was created using data from the nationally representative, 2004 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities. A generalized ordinal logistic regression model tested the effects of childhood adversities on resistant behaviors toward law enforcement officers. Physical victimization during childhood and adulthood predicted resistant behaviors toward law enforcement officers above and beyond the effects of prior victimization during only childhood and only adulthood. This study found a strong association between prior physical victimization, foster care involvement, and resistant behaviors after adjusting for demographic, situational, and criminal background variables. (Author Abstract)

Description

Keywords

child abuse, research, physical abuse, revictimization, behavioral effects, social effects

Citation

Marotta Phillip. (2015). Childhood Adversities and Resistant Behaviors Toward Law Enforcement Officers in a National Sample of State and Federal Inmates. Police Quarterly, 18(4), 414–441.

DOI