The goal of this study was to increase understanding of the roles that sociodemographics and protective factors play in the maltreatment-offending relationship. Specific objectives include:

• Use statistical modelling to examine the pattern and frequency of delinquent or criminal behavior from adolescence into young adulthood in the representative sample.
• Assess whether patterns of violent and nonviolent offending vary by sex, race/ethnicity, or sexual orientation.
• Use statistical modelling to examine the relationship between maltreatment and later delinquent or criminal behaviors from adolescence into young adulthood.
• Assess whether the relationship between maltreatment and later violent and non-violent offending vary by sex, race/ethnicity, or sexual orientation.
• Test whether potential protective factors at the peer, family, school, and neighborhood levels decrease the risk that youth who experience maltreatment will go on to engage in delinquent or criminal behaviors.
• Assess whether the effects of protective factors vary by sex, race/ethnicity, or sexual orientation.
• Use mixed effects modeling in a nationally representative sample to create growth curves illustrating the above relationships.

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