The links between child maltreatment and youth offending are widely accepted, but little understood (Stewart, Livingston, & Dennison, 2008). Maltreated children are at increased risk of offending, yet, the majority of maltreated children do not offend (Stewart et al., 2008). Research efforts directed at examining and explaining the links between maltreatment and offending have typically been hampered by overly simplistic operationalisations of child maltreatment. Specifically, researchers have often failed to account for the heterogeneous nature of maltreatment experiences across the life-course, and the impact of maltreatment dimensions such as type, chronicity, timing, frequency and multi-type maltreatment (Herrenkohl & Herrenkohl, 2009; Maas, Herrenkohl, & Sousa, 2008). The primary aim of this thesis was to examine the links between child maltreatment and youth offending with consideration of the heterogeneous and complex nature of child maltreatment across childhood and adolescence, within the broader developmental system and historical context.