NCJ Number
195582
Journal
Violence and Victims Volume: 17 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2002 Pages: 233-253
Editor(s)
Roland D. Maiuro Ph.D.
Date Published
April 2002
Length
21 pages
Annotation
The article reviews school-based victimization data and compares the findings to opportunity theory predictions.
Abstract
The article presents a study of criminal victimization among middle-and high-school students. Study data were taken from the 1997 Kentucky Youth Survey and yielded a sample of 3,818 middle and high school students. Analysis was performed through logistic regression. The authors explored the applicability of criminal opportunity theory to school-based violence. Variations in the applicability of the theory between property and violent crime and crimes that occurred in middle schools as opposed to high school were also reviewed. The theoretical foundations of the criminal opportunity theory are presented including discussion of the lifestyles-exposure theory and routine activities theory. The impact of target vulnerability, target antagonism, and school-level controls on incidence rates and victimization patterns was assessed. The authors concluded that criminal opportunity theory was supported as a conceptual tool for analysis of school based violence and that the theory generally predicted both violent and property school-based offenses. In review of differences between victimization rates at middle school versus high schools the data indicated that the key factor concerning increased middle school victimization rates was a "metropolitan area" school location. 5 tables, 11 notes, 72 references