Child maltreatment and adult violent offending: population-based twin study addressing the 'cycle of violence' hypothesis
Child maltreatment and adult violent offending: population-based twin study addressing the 'cycle of violence' hypothesis
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DOI：
10.1017/s0033291711003060
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发表时间：
2012-09-01
影响因子：
6.9
通讯作者：
Langstrom, N.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Forsman, M.;Langstrom, N.
背景。儿童虐待和成人暴力之间的联系，通常被称为“暴力循环”，有充分的记录。然而，在适当控制混杂后，这种联系的性质仍然不确定。我们的目的是确定儿童虐待是否会导致成人暴力犯罪，或者是否存在遗传或家庭环境混杂的联系。共有18083名20至47岁的双胞胎参与了瑞典基于人口的双胞胎成人研究：基因和环境（STAGE）。我们将自我报告的儿童虐待信息与成人犯罪定罪的国家登记数据联系起来。我们使用病例对照设计来阐明不相关个体之间的关联，并进行不一致双胞胎内分析来估计家族混杂对这种关联的影响。经年龄、性别和教育程度调整后，受虐待儿童成年后暴力犯罪的优势比（OR）为1.98[95%可信区间（CI） 1.52-2.57]。然而，当受虐待的儿童与未受虐待的双胞胎进行比较时，相关性下降到1.18 (95% CI 0.62-2.25)，这表明遗传或家庭环境因素存在很大的混淆（双胞胎内or 1.00）。在儿童虐待与任何犯罪行为之间也存在家族混淆。儿童虐待是成人暴力犯罪的弱因果危险因素；因此，减少虐待可能会比以前预期的减少暴力犯罪。相反，对儿童虐待和成人暴力犯罪之间联系的大量家庭混淆表明，预防战略需要解决虐待和暴力行为的遗传和/或家庭环境责任重叠问题。
Background. Associations between child maltreatment and adult violence, often termed the 'cycle of violence', are well documented. However, the nature of such links after appropriate control for confounding remains uncertain. We aimed to determine whether child maltreatment causes adult violent offending or whether suggested links are due to genetic or family environment confounding.Method. A total of 18 083 20- to 47-year-old twins from the Swedish population-based Study of Twin Adults: Genes and Environment (STAGE) participated. We linked information on self-reported child maltreatment with national register data on convictions for adult crime. We used a case-control design to elucidate associations among unrelated individuals and also conducted within-discordant twin pair analyses to estimate the influence of familial confounding on this association.Results. The odds ratio (OR), adjusted for age, sex and education, for violent offending in maltreated children grown up versus unrelated controls was 1.98 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.52-2.57]. However, the association decreased to 1.18 (95% CI 0.62-2.25) when maltreated children were compared to their non-maltreated twins, suggesting substantial confounding by genetic or family environmental factors (within-twin OR 1.00). Familial confounding was also pronounced for the association between child maltreatment and any offending.Conclusions. Childhood maltreatment was found to be a weak causal risk factor for adult violent offending; hence, reducing maltreatment might decrease violent crime less than previously expected. Instead, considerable familial confounding of the link between child maltreatment and adult violent offending suggests that prevention strategies need to address overlapping genetic and/or family environmental liability for abusive and violent behavior.