Abused Child and Delinquency

In the background of any discussion of the connection between child abuse and delinquency is sociological theory that can help explain how each phenomenon can arise in a stable society on one hand, and how one phenomenon can have an impact on a second on the other. The theories of Max Weber are important in this regard. Both child abuse and delinquency represent what could be called an aspect of irrationality in a society otherwise defined, by Weber, as rationalized. According to Weber, indeed, rationality is that invisible thing, force, process, and (most important) attitude whereby a s

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he family unit. But if the family unit itself is enacting a social response to such isolation, then the implication that there will be a cycle of violence against subsequent generations of children, as long as the children who are abused become delinquent, remaining outside the "rational" social mainstream, is quite strong. In this regard, a much-referred-to series of studies in 1988 and 1989 (Lewis, et al. (a) 582ff; Lewis, et al. (b) 433) "found that 20% of abused children became delinquent compared to 5% of the population, and young murderers frequently reported abuse (Withecomb 433). Withecomb (434-5) also cites a series of studies showing that physical abuse that leads to nervous-system damage is implicated in the abused child's later resort to violence, although she cautions that the present status of research shows correlation rather than causation. Physical abuse in the form of maltreatment and neglect, which may entail lack of regular medical care, birth defects, learning disabilities, low verbal skills, and the like, has also been connected to delinquent behavior, which can be connected to a failure to integrate positively with the found conditions of society. On the other hand, studies suggest that abused children can b
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Approximate Word count = 3753
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)

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