Sins of the Fathers: a Look at the Relationship between Child Abuse and Delinquency

Dane Elmar Petersen shares his thirty years of experience working with delinquent youth in The Sins of the Fathers: A Look at the Relationship between Child Abuse and Delinquency. This book presents a unique perspective on the pathways to delinquency. The Sins of the Fathers is a must for correctional staff, probation and parole practitioners, social service providers, educators and treatment professionals working with juveniles, and is certainly relevant to how we intervene with adults as well. It presents the reader with new typologies, observations on interventions and treatment, and the promising interventions the author has developed in his day-to-day work with delinquents.

“As a juvenile justice practitioner and in my work with victims of crime, I have always found it heart-wrenching to listen to memories of abuse. The pain of child abuse is simply beyond words – except when it is the child’s words. As a practitioner, I have always found it difficult to balance the harm that a juvenile offender has caused by his or her acts and the harm that may have been done to him or her as a victim of abuse. Dane Petersen brings a new perspective to juvenile justice practitioners who face this dilemma. His perspective, though, is from the youth involved in the abuse. And, the reader should be warned, it is difficult to read their stories describing that abuse.

The Sins of the Fathers goes into some detail to explain the typology of abused delinquents that has been developed by Petersen. This typology is especially important because it includes stages of development, characterizes the purpose of delinquent behavior for each group, and provides characteristic behavior. This information, when coupled with information we have about normal adolescent development, provides insights that can improve the work of juvenile justice practitioners in both correctional and community settings.”

Cherlyn (Cherie) K. Townsend
Juvenile Justice Committee Chair
American Probation and Parole Association

• Table of Contents for Sins of the Fathers

• Excerpt from Chapter 1

• Excerpt from Chapter 3
  
  

Published 2003, 230 pages
ITEM # PF17

Non-Member Price $17.50 plus S & H
APPA Member Price $14.00 plus S & H