The study findings contribute to the growing body of research on the cycle of family and community violence and underscore the need for social service and criminal justice agencies to provide prevention and intervention services for adolescent victims of maltreatment. The findings also indicate that physical abuse during adolescence is moderately associated with the prevalence and frequency of criminal involvement that persists into adulthood and is generalized across a variety of offenses. The frequency of offending behavior was found to be moderated by family income, area of residence, and family structure. The relationship between adolescent physical abuse and criminal involvement was greatest for adolescents living in urban and suburban neighborhoods and for those living in low-income or single- or no-parent families. Data were drawn from the National Youth Survey, which contains information on a national probability sample of 1,725 adolescents born in the United States between 1959 and 1965; data were collected via face-to-face interviews during 9 waves of data collection beginning in 1976. Variables under examination in the current analysis included adolescent physical abuse measures, self-reported criminal offending, and demographic information. Tables, appendix, references