Self-Reports of Early Childhood Victimization Among Incarcerated Adult Male Felons

The extent of childhood victimization (physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect) was assessed retrospectively through self-reports in a sample of 301 convicted adult male felons randomly selected from a New York State medium-correctional facility using a structured interview with known psychometric properties. Overall, 68% of the sample of incarcerated adult male felons reported some form of childhood victimization, although the percentage varied depending on the measure used to assess the childhood abuse experiences. Violent offenders reported significantly more childhood neglect than nonviolent offenders but not more physical abuse. On an overall index of childhood sexual abuse, sex offenders reported higher rates of childhood sexual abuse than other offenders (26.3% vs.12.5%). Implications of these findings are discussed.