Juvenile Justice Bulletin -- August 2001 -- Juvenile Delinquency and Serious Injury Victimization


	August 2001

Juvenile Delinquency and Serious Injury Victimization

Rolf Loeber, Larry Kalb, and David Huizinga

Introduction

Two Longitudinal Studies

Assessment of Victimization and Risk Factors

This Bulletin was prepared under grant number 95–JD–FX–0018 from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice.

Points of view or opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of OJJDP or the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office for Victims of Crime.

A Message From OJJDP

Conventional wisdom generally conceives of victims of violence as innocent bystanders. Although many victims fall into this category, this Bulletin focuses on another set of victims: youth involved with juvenile delinquency. These victims are prone to engage in illegal activities, associate with delinquents, victimize other delinquents, and avoid legal recourse in resolving conflicts.

It appears that delinquent behavior and victimization are inextricably linked for some individuals. A recent study found that 1 in 2 males who were serious, violent juvenile offenders were violently victimized compared with 1 in 10 of their nondelinquent peers. Being victimized, in turn, may lead to victimizing others. Retaliatory acts of violence, often associated with gangs, are classic examples of this cycle of behavior.

A clearer understanding of the patterns and predictors of juvenile victimization thus offers the potential for increased effectiveness in designing and implementing strategies to reduce both victimization and offending.

This Bulletin draws on data from two OJJDP longitudinal studies on the causes and correlates of juvenile delinquency—the Denver Youth Survey and the Pittsburgh Youth Study—to enhance our appreciation of the interrelationship between delinquency and victimization.

NCJ 188676

Acknowledgments

The research was supported by grants 96–MU–FX–0012 and 96–MU–FX–0017 from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Rolf Loeber, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, and Principal Investigator for the Pittsburgh Youth Study. His research interests concern developmental psychopathology, antisocial and delinquent behaviors from childhood to early adulthood, criminology, juvenile substance use and abuse, juvenile mental health problems, family and neighborhood risk processes, protective factors, and public health interventions.

Larry Kalb is a doctoral student in the Joint Clinical/Developmental Psychology Program at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. His research interest concerns the development of antisocial behavior in juveniles and childhood noncompliance.

David Huizinga, Ph.D., is the Principal Investigator for the Denver Youth Survey. He is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Behavior Science, University of Colorado at Boulder. His research interests concern the child, adolescent, and early to midadulthood developmental processes related to deviant and successful adaptations over the life course.

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