Self-Control, Social Bonds, and Juvenile Victimization: Testing the General Theory of Crime in China

• In Event: Self-Control, Strain and the Victimization-Offending Link

Abstract

Schreck (1999) innovatively extended the self-control theory from delinquency to victimization. Since then, this new direction of research has drawn an increasing amount of scholarly attention. About 66 articles testing the relationship between self-control and victimization have been published (Pratt, Turanovic, Fox, & Wright, 2014). However, the results are mixed. The current study continues this line of research to examine the utility of self-control theory in predicting juvenile victimization in China. As China has the largest youth population in the world, juvenile victimization is an important research topic to study. Surprisingly, empirical research that examines the correlates of Chinese juvenile victimization is rare. The research site of the current study is Hangzhou, an east-coastal Chinese city with approximately 5.5 million residents. Using the second-wave International Self-Reported Delinquency (ISRD-2) instrument, data were collected from 1,043 students of 7th-9th grades by multi-stage cluster sampling technique. Structural equation modeling will be employed to assess the direct and indirect effects of variables tapping into self-control theory in relation to four types of juvenile victimization (i.e., robbery, assault, theft, and bullying). Social bonds variables will be included in the analysis as the hypothesized intervening effect on victimization.

Authors

• Shu Cang, Sam Houston State University

• Ling Ren, Sam Houston State University