Assessing the Victim-Offender Overlap Among Puerto Rican Youth

• NCJ Number: 233242
• Journal: Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 38 Issue: 6 Dated: November/December 2010 Pages: 1191-1201
• Author(s): Mildred M. Maldonado-Molina; Wesley G. Jennings; Amy L. Tobler; Alex R. Piquero; Glorisa Canino
• Date Published: November 2010
• Length: 11 pages
• Grant Number(s): RO-1 MH56401; 5P60 MD002261-02; K01-AA017480
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services; National Institute of Mental Health; National Ctr on Minority Health and Health Disparities
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study explores the victim-offender overlap among Hispanic youth and the extent to which criminological risk factors from individual, familial, peer, and contextual domains help understand and explain the overlap between victimization and offending.

Abstract

The results of the study indicate (1) an overlap between offending and victimization that persists over time, (2) a considerable overlap in the number, type, direction, and magnitude of the effect of individual, familial, peer, and contextual factors on both offending and victimization, (3) some of the factors related to offending were only relevant at baseline and not for the growth in offending but that several factors were associated with the growth in victimization, and (4) various risk factors could not explain much of the overlap between offending and victimization. Knowledge about offenders and knowledge about victims has traditionally been undertaken without formal consideration of the overlap among the two. The purpose of this study is to explore the joint, longitudinal overlap between offending and victimization among a sample of Puerto Rican youth from the Bronx, NY. Tables, figure, appendixes, notes, and references