NCJ Number
83588
Date Published
1981
Length
251 pages
Annotation
Questionnaires completed by 549 students in a suburban high school in Tuscon, Ariz., were analyzed to determine the relative validity of six hypotheses about the causes of crime victimization.
Abstract
A review of the literature on victimization, the etiology of deviant behavior, and the operation of the legal system revealed that the six different hypotheses have been supported. These hypotheses variously predict that the probability of victimization is determined by (1) exposure to offenders, (2) social distance from offenders, (3) economic attractivenes (4) high status of the victim, (5) the legal risk of the crime, and (6) the potential victim's inability to physically intimidate the potential offender. The analysis considered the causes of both property and personal victimization both at school and elsewhere. Findings were most consistent with the exposure hypothesis, whereby the more exposed a student was to offenders, the greater the probability that the student has suffered a theft or a destruction of property both at school and elsewhere. The exposure hypothesis asserted that persons with the same characteristics as offenders are more exposed to offenders. Males, freshman and sophomores, and students with low grades were significantly more likely to be theft offenders and victims than were other students. Personal victimizations through threats and attacks were related to both exposure and to some victims' high status or social distance from offenders. Provocation was often a factor in the personal victimizations among students with the same characteristics as offenders. Tables and 94 references are provided.