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22 Criminology 259 (1984)
Social Class, Child Maltreatment, and Delinquent Behavior

handle is hein.journals/crim22 and id is 261 raw text is: ABSTRACT * * *
The relationship between social class and child maltreatment
and between maltreatment and delinquency were examined,
particular attention being paid to previous deficiencies in the
operationalization of maltreatment and class. Maltreatment
was operationalized with subscales for physical abuse, emo-
tional abuse, and neglect, while social class was operational-
ized with multiple indicators. Survey data from 110 high
school freshmen were analyzed and revealed the following: (a)
a weak but consistent inverse correlation between social class
and all forms of child maltreatment, (b) a stronger relation-
ship between social class and maltreatment when lower-class
membership was operationalized in a manner consistent with
the concept of an underclass, (c) that emotional abuse and
neglect were correlated positively with allforms of delinquent
behavior examined, and (d) that physical abuse was not
correlated appreciably and positively with any form of delin-
quency.
Social Class, Child Maltreatment,
and Delinquent Behavior
STEPHEN E. BROWN
East Tennessee State University
A review of literature on the topic of child maltreatment reveals a wide-
spread belief supported by some empirical evidence that this social
problem is intertwined intricately with several other class-related prob-
lems. These include juvenile delinquency, stress, alcoholism, unemploy-
ment, and numerous other social plights (Helfer and Kempe, 1976). This
article reports on an attempt to explicate the relationships between social
class and child maltreatment and between maltreatment and delinquency.
Analyses of these topics has been impeded by a lack of conceptual
clarity and definitional ambiguity (Giovannoni and Becerra, 1979). Nu-
merous definitions of child abuse and maltreatment have been proffered,
leading to discrepant findings and difficulty in arriving at generalizations
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a revised version of a paper presented at the 1981
meeting of the American Society of Criminology.
CRIMINOLOGY, Vol. 22 No. 2, May 1984 259-278
© 1984 American Society of Criminology                      259

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