Childhood Poverty and/or Parental Mental Illness May Double Teens’ Risk of Violence and Police Contact

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

Living with persistent poverty and/or parental mental illness throughout childhood may double the risk of carrying and/or using a weapon and getting on the wrong side of the law by the age of 17, suggests research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

These factors may account for nearly one in three cases of weapon use or carriage and more than a quarter of all police contact among 17-year-olds, nationwide, estimate the researchers.

Youth crime and violence are common around the world, they note. In England and Wales, for example, around 104,400 first-time offenders were recorded in the criminal justice system in 2020, with 11% of them aged between 10 and 17.

Researchers drew on long term data from the representative UK Millennium Cohort Study for 9,316 children whose exposure to family adversities and household poverty had been reported from birth to the age of 14.

When they were 17, the teens were asked, via questionnaire, if they had carried or used a weapon, such as a knife, and/or had been in contact with the police, to include being stopped and questioned, given a formal warning or caution, or being arrested.

The overall prevalence of weapon use/carriage was just over 6%, while that of police contact was 20%.

Analysis of the data showed that exposure to poverty and family adversity throughout childhood, either singly or combined, significantly increased the likelihood of violence and criminal justice involvement during their teenage years.

Nearly one in 10 (just under 9%) of the teens exposed to persistent poverty and poor parental mental health throughout childhood said they had carried or used a weapon, while more than one in four (28%) of them had come into contact with the police.

This compares with 5% and just over 17%, respectively, of those who had not grown up in this environment.

Based on these figures, and population estimates, the researchers estimate that persistent poverty and family adversities account for around a third (32%) of all cases of weapon use/carriage and nearly one in four (23%) cases of contact with the police among 17-year-olds across the UK.

This is an observational study, and as such, no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect. And the researchers acknowledge that there might have been other as yet unaccounted for influential factors.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-01-childhood-poverty-andor-parental-mental.html