Clarifying the Pathways to Polyvictimization: The Role of Parental Criminality

• In Event: Victimization of Youth

Abstract

Polyvictimization, an individual’s experience of multiple forms of victimization, has been of increasing interest in victimology over the past decade. Finkelhor and colleagues (2009) empirically assessed and found support for four pathways to polyvictimization. Two of those pathways posit that dangerous families and family problems put youth at risk of polyvictimization. However, the individual indicators that compose each pathway have not been tested, and it is not known whether the pathways may differ according to gender. The present study tests the relationship between parental criminality and polyvictimization, as well as whether that relationship differs for male and female youth. Preliminary results of a logistic regression using data from the National Survey of Adolescents find a significant relationship between parental criminality and polyvictimization for both males and females.

Author

• Jessica Miller, University of Maryland