Long term impacts of childhood exposure to domestic violence on mental health and crime
What is your research about?
Understanding the roots of violent and criminal behaviour is crucial for developing effective prevention and intervention strategies. A large body of research has highlighted the complex interplay between genetic, environmental, and psychological factors in explaining such behaviours (e.g., Tremblay, Vitaro and Cote, 2018). This same literature has also shown that a developmental approach to understanding aggressive and criminal behaviours is particularly useful, arguing convincingly that early intervention has the potential to have large impacts in the long run. Mental health is likely to be an important mediator through which early events affect aggressive behaviours over the life-cycle.
This project will focus the long-term consequences of early exposure to abuse and violence. We ask:
- What is the impact of exposure to domestic violence as a child on violent and criminal behaviours throughout their lives?
- How much of this impact is driven by changes in the child's mental health?
- How can the access to mental health treatment at different ages of the child help break the link between early abuse and criminal behaviour?
How will the Stone Centre grant help you?
The Stone Centre grant will help us by enabling us to buy a comprehensive administrative dataset from Finland, covering demographics, education, labour market outcomes, healthcare use, criminal convictions, police reports and welfare use for the enire population over the last 50 years.
What will you produce as part of your research?
We will write a paper, a policy brief, and prepare lecture slides.
About this grant
Title of the project: Long term impacts of childhood exposure to domestic violence on mental health and crime
Value of the grant: £12,700
Duration: November 2024 – April 2026
