Interaction between Gender and Vicarious Violence Predicting Violence : Based on General Strain Theory

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

According to General strain theory, criminal victimization is one of key strains which are highly associated to criminal behaviors. Despite the fact that most of studies on the effect of victimization deal with being directly victimized in the general strain perspective, Agnew (2002) stressed not only the effect of experienced strain, but also the importance of vicarious strain. In order to deal with the strain and resultant negative emotions, individuals may choose deviant behaviors as coping mechanisms (Agnew, 2006). Although Broidy and Agnew (1997) explained how general strain theory can be applied to the gender issue of crime, gender differences are not clear yet. To fill this gap, this study investigates the effect of witnessing violence on engaging violent behaviors of adolescents. More specifically, it examines whether there is an interaction between gender and vicarious violence predicting violent behaviors. The data came from National Survey of Adolescents (NSA). To assess the association among variables, correlation analyses and multivariate logistic regression are conducted. Results show that witnessing violence predicts violent behaviors and the interaction between gender and witnessing violence is significant.

Author

• Yeungjeom Lee, University of Florida