NCJ Number
205237
Journal
Violence and Victims Volume: 18 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2003 Pages: 671-690
Date Published
December 2003
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This study examined the criminal versatility of gang and dating violence offenders.
Abstract
Previous research has established the criminal versatility of many offenders; involvement in one type of criminal enterprise is often associated with involvement in other types of criminal enterprises. While the research literature on the criminal versatility of gang members is plentiful, no research exists that probes the involvement of gang members in intimate violence. Likewise, research regarding intimate partner and dating violence has not probed the versatility of these offenders. Drawing on Gottfredson and Hirschi’s (1990) general theory of crime which suggests that low self-control is associated with many different types of criminal and non-criminal risk-taking behaviors, the authors investigated the overlap between gang and dating violence and the versatility of these two types of offenders. Three main research questions were addressed: (1) how varied are the criminal careers of gang and dating violence offenders; (2) drawing on the general theory of crime, are gang and dating violence related to similar theoretical variables; and (3) what is the relationship between self-control, general criminal opportunity, crime-specific opportunity, and gang and dating violence? Data were collected from 1,139 youths in grades 9 through 11 in a medium-sized suburban/rural city. Participants completed 200-question self-report surveys measuring dating violence, gang violence, parental attachment, self-control, criminal opportunity, dating frequency, gang membership, and control variables. Results of bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated that both gang and dating violence offenders were involved in a variety of crimes. Significant overlap was observed in the independent theoretical variables associated with both types of violence. The findings also revealed that, as expected, low self-control and exposure to both general and crime-specific criminal opportunities were significantly associated with gang and dating violence. An interesting finding showed that dating violence was significantly associated with current gang membership. This finding presents opportunities for intimate violence interventions. Limitations of the study include the measures of dating and gang violence, which may have failed to comprehensively capture the nature or extent of both types of violence. Tables, notes, references