Linking Child Maltreatment and Juvenile Delinquency: Causes, Correlates, and Consequences

The articles in this special issue contain outstanding examples of recent research and theory linking the fields of child maltreatment and juvenile delinquency. The authors--all prominent social scientists--present new findings and push the field toward a broader conceptualization of causation and consequences of maltreatment and delinquency. The research employed innovative longitudinal designs and sampled some of the most vulnerable youth in society. As a result, the authors' conclusions are more directly applicable than they might otherwise be to at-risk children who have actually experienced maltreatment or engaged in delinquency. The editors anticipate that this collection of papers will not only provide answers to old questions about connections between maltreatment and delinquency, but will also raise many new questions and prompt future research.