Pathways from Traumatic Child Victimization to Delinquency: Implications for Juvenile and Permanency Court Proceedings and Decisions

Research studies and observations by mental health and judicial professionals suggest that childhood traumatic victimization may contribute to the development of juvenile delinquency. Based on this evidence, we describe a chronological pathway that runs from: (a) early childhood victimization, to (b) escalating dysregulation of emotion and social information processing (“survival coping,” which takes the form of depression, anxiety, social isolation, peer rejection, and conflicted relationships), to (c) severe and persistent problems with oppositional-defiance and overt or covert aggression compounded by post-traumatic reactivity and hypervigilance (“victim coping”). A case vignette is provided, and implications for judicial review and decisions are discussed.