The Victim - Offender Overlap : Specifying the Role of Peer Groups A

Although research consistently indicates that adolescents’ peers are an important determinant of their involvement in crime as offenders, there has been little attention to whether adolescents’ peers influence adolescent victimization. This omission is problematic both because some adolescents alternate between offending and victimization and because many of the same factors that predict offending also predict victimization, suggesting the peer groups may be an important, but overlooked determinant of victimization. Despite important gains in understanding the overlap between victimization and offending important areas of research are undeveloped. Key questions remaining include (a) What is the causal connection between victimization and offending? For example, do they share a similar etiological process? Are they reciprocally related?; (b) How do peers influence both adolescents’ risk for victimization and the relationship between victimization and offending?; and (c) Does social context influence the relationships among victimization, offending, and peer groups? This dissertation addressed each of the issues using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Among the more important advantages of these data is the inclusion of detailed information about adolescents’ families, the friendship networks among adolescents and their peers, and adolescents’ involvement in crime as both victims and offenders. The results indicate that 1) the relationship between victimization and offending is iv substantial, robust, and reciprocal and that the victim-offender overlap is likely the result of a similar social process; 2) peer group characteristics influence adolescents’ risk of both victimization and offending and moderate the effects of offending on victimization; and 3) school context generally does not significantly affect the victimoffender overlap.