Dynamics of the Victim-Offender Relationship: Neighborhood Influences on Adjudicated Youth

• In Event: Developmental Approaches to the Victim-Offender Overlap

Abstract

Numerous studies have delved into the complexities of the victim-offender overlap throughout individuals' lives. However, a critical gap persists in many of these studies: the absence of lagged measures of the outcome variable. To address this gap, our study employs cross-lagged dynamic panel models to test the victim-offender overlap among adjudicated youth, with a nuanced examination of how this relationship is moderated by various neighborhood conditions. Drawing upon the life-course perspective and using 11 waves of data from the Pathways to Desistance project we find that, net of baseline offending, both experiences of victimization and adverse neighborhood conditions contribute to increased offending behaviors during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Further, our analysis of various neighborhood aspects, including physical disorder, social disorder, and neighborhood safety, yields important insights into the differential impacts of neighborhood conditions on the victim-offender overlap in adjudicated youth.

Authors

• Samantha Kopf, Bowling Green State University

• Danielle Kuhl, Bowling Green State University