Gambling Harm and Crime Careers.

Incarcerated populations across the world have been found to be consistently and significantly more vulnerable to problem gambling than general populations in the same countries. In an effort to gain a more specific understanding of this vulnerability the present study applied latent class analysis and criminal career theory to gambling data collected from a sample of English and Scottish, male and female prisoners (N = 1057). Theoretical links between gambling and crime were tested through three hypotheses: (1) that prisoners in the UK would have higher rates of problem gambling behaviour than the national population; (2) that if the link between gambling and crime is coincidental, gambling behaviour would be highly prevalent in an offending population, and (3) if connections between gambling behaviour and offending are co-symptomatic a mediating factor would show a strong association. The first of these was supported, the second was not supported and the third was partially supported. Latent class analysis found six gambling behaviour clusters measured by responses to the Problem Gambling Severity Index, primarily distinguished by loss chasing behaviour. Longitudinal offending data drawn from the Police National Computer database found four criminal career types, distinguished by frequency and persistence over time. A significant association was found between higher level loss chasing and high rate offending in criminal careers suggesting that impulse control may be a mediating factor for both gambling harm and criminal careers.

Measuring child maltreatment in the United Kingdom: a study of the prevalence of child abuse and neglect.

OBJECTIVE: To provide reliable measures of the prevalence of all forms of child maltreatment in the UK that will be robust in the context of social and cultural differences due to social class, ethnicity and, region. METHODS: Two thousand eight hundred sixty-nine (2,869) young adults aged 18=-24, obtained by random probability sampling throughout the UK, were interviewed face to face by trained interviewers. Maltreatment was defined using a post hoc assessment of a range of experienced behaviors and treatments while the respondents were aged 16 or under. RESULTS: Over 90% of respondents reported that they came from a warm and loving family background. Maltreatment (both intra and extrafamilial) was experienced by 16% of the sample. Serious maltreatment was experienced by 7% of respondents for physical abuse, 6% for emotional abuse, 6% for absence of care, and 5% for absence of supervision, and 11% reported sexual abuse involving contact. Attitudes to maltreatment were explored through the examination of respondents' views of different behaviors and experiences that children may have been exposed to. CONCLUSION: The maltreatment of children in the UK today remains an extensive social problem. Prevalence data reveal that children are most at risk in the home for physical and emotional abuse and neglect. They are at greater risk of sexual abuse outside the home, particularly in dating relationships.