The Victim-Offender Overlap Contextualized: Unpacking Heterogeneity by Victimization Degree, Dimension, and Offending Type Among System-Involved Youth

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Abstract

Extant studies reveal a significant overlap among juvenile victim and offending
populations (“victim-offenders”): youth, especially system-involved youth, encounter a range of
victimization experiences, participate in a variety of crime, and their experiences of victimization
vary in their capacity to induce a criminal response. So far, however, most victim-offender
research either depends on general/composite measures of victimization and offending or
disproportionately focuses on violence, which neglects the heterogeneity in victimization
histories and offending behaviors among victimized youths. To better understand the intra-group
variability of the youth victim-offender group, a deeper look into how different victimization
events motivate distinct types of offending is needed. Using longitudinal data from the Pathways
to Desistance Study, this study aims to describe and dissect differences in violent victimization
experiences as a means of understanding variation in future criminal behavior among a serious
offending youth sample. The current research draws on general strain theory to assess whether
differentiating degree and dimensions of victimization (i.e., frequency, variety, recency, and
duration) significantly affect predictions of participation in later violent and property crime.
Preliminary findings indicate that differences in victimization experiences may shape meaningful
differences in subsequent offending behaviors, but in nuanced ways. Implications for the victim-
offender literature are discussed.

Author

• Jae Eun Lee, University of Maryland, College Park