Examining the Impact of Victimization on Girls’ Delinquency: A Study of Direct and Indirect Effects

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Previous research has acknowledged that there is a relationship between victimization and later delinquency, but the specific attributes of this relationship are unclear because measures of both direct and indirect victimization are rarely explored in a single study. We included both indirect and direct victimization to examine which form of victimization was a stronger predictor of substance use, fighting, running away, and sex work among girls committed to a juvenile justice facility. Findings indicated that direct victimization was typically a more salient predictor of delinquency than indirect forms of victimization. Further, running away and sex work appear to be unique outcomes that are particularly likely when girls experience direct rather than indirect victimization. Findings are summarized with implications for health and public policy.

Rights

© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Peterson, J., DeHart, D., & Wright, E. (2019). Examining the Impact of Victimization on Girls’ Delinquency: A Study of Direct and Indirect Effects. International Journal Of Environmental Research And Public Health, 16(11), 1-13. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16111873

Link to Record

Share

COinS