2016
Cathy Spatz Widom
Causes of crime and victimisation.
Widom was lauded for her research on the impact of early childhood abuse on later development. Based on the unique empirical database of abused children she created, she was able to show that children subjected to abuse – such as violence (including sexual violence) and parental neglect – had a significantly greater risk of developing a wide variety of psychological, social, and even health problems later in life. These problems also included criminal behaviour, particularly violent crime among boys.Cathy Spatz Widom
Born 1945 in the US. Cathy Spatz Widom was professor in Psychology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York (United States) at the time of the award.
Showed that even criminal parents can raise their children to be good citizens, but their risk of adult violence rises with abuse as a child.Showed that even criminal parents can raise their children to be good citizens, but their risk of adult violence rises with abuse as a child.
Nuanced view of violence and parenting
Cathy Spatz Widom was awarded the 2016 Stockholm Prize in Criminology for her outstanding research on how childhood to victimisation increases the risk of future criminality – but also for showing that violence does not necessarily beget violence.
Widom’s research found that children abused at a young age had an increased risk as adults of engaging in violent behaviour and in other crime activities. Yet most abuse victims did not go on to commit violent crime. She demonstrated that it is far from true that violence always begets violence, but it is a risk factor nonetheless.
Parenting matters
Her work supports Hirschi’s theory that even bad parenting can have good elements, and that even criminal parents can often form a strong bond with their children and teach them right from wrong.
While Hirschi showed what parents can do right, Widom – a pioneer in systematic criminological research on parenting – showed what parents can do wrong.
Childhood leaves traces
Between 1967 and 1971, Widom studied 908 children in a midwestern American city who had been abused and/or severely neglected by their parents or relatives before the age of 11. She then compared these children with a control group of 667 children who had not been abused or neglected.
Over a two-decade follow-up, she found that children abused at a young age had an increased risk of engaging in violence and criminality in adulthood, but that most, even those in the most vulnerable group, did not do so as often as anticipated.