Comparing Self-Reports and Official Records of Arrests

Authors: Maxfield M.G.¹; Weiler B.L.²; Widom C.S.²

Source: Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Volume 16, Number 1, March 2000 , pp. 87-110(24)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

We compared measures of self-reported arrests and official arrests for 676 young adults with a history of child abuse and/or neglect and 520 nonabused and nonneglected controls matched on age, sex, race, and approximate family social class. Findings reveal considerable concurrent validity between the two sources overall. But there is also evidence of differences by gender, race/ethnicity, age at time of arrest, conviction status, and type of offense. Abused and neglected subjects did not appear to differ from the control group in the extent of underreporting of known offenses, however, the groups did differ in the degree of “positive bias”—offenses not found in arrest records. Abused/neglected subjects self-reported proportionately more offenses not known to police compared to controls. This result suggests that findings from previous studies on the relationship between childhood victimization and later criminality, as measured by arrests, may have underestimated the magnitude of this relationship.

Keywords: self-reports; official reports; validity; child abuse; child neglect

Language: English

Document Type: Regular paper

Affiliations: 1: School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University, 123 Washington Street, Newark, New Jersey 07102 2: School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, Albany, New York 12222

Publication date: 2000-03-01