Decades of research have indicated that chronic patterns of serious antisocial behavior originate in childhood. [1] Child maltreatment is a known risk factor for the development of antisocial behavior[2], but studies to elucidate the nature of that association—specifically to establish causality—have historically been compromised by modest sample size, inadequate control for inherited influence on antisocial outcome, over reliance on self- or family-report of maltreatment, and/or ascertainment bias. Given that child maltreatment is preventable, [3] it is crucial to firmly establish its association with antisocial development in order to inform public policy on prevention. In this study we attempted to mitigate shortcomings of prior research by conducting a large-scale analysis of the effect of maltreatment on antisocial outcome in an epidemiologic sampling frame; one in which inherited factors were fully controlled (via the twin design) and the ascertainment of maltreatment was standardized by the use of official-report data acquired from a state administrative database.
