Conclusion
A sizeable percentage of youth and young adult males and females reported being victims. In Pittsburgh, 11 percent of males between the average ages of 16.5 and 18.5 received serious injuries when they were assaulted or robbed. In Denver, 20 percent of males and 10 percent of females reported being victims between ages 13 and 17. Quite clearly, victimization was not a rare occurrence in these samples. At both sites, minorities, especially African American males, were more likely to have been victims.
Several risk factors for victimization were found at both sites. These included participating in gang or group fights, carrying a weapon, committing serious assault, selling drugs, and associating with delinquent peers. Fourteen percent of the male victims and 28 percent of the female victims in Denver did not have any of these measured risk factors. In Pittsburgh, 34 percent of the victims did not have any of these risk factors.
Thus, although not all victims had these risk factors, the vast majority of victims (66 percent in Pittsburgh and 87 percent of males and 72 percent of females in Denver) were involved in behaviors or activities that might be associated with sustaining serious injuries. This raises a number of issues for the prevention of victimization. First, for the majority of victims, successful delinquency prevention procedures are likely to prevent victimization. Because most victims are themselves involved in assaultive behaviors, sell drugs, and/or have delinquent peers, avoidance of these risky behaviors could result in the lowering of risk for victimization. In fact, although not examined in this Bulletin, victimization may be a fairly strong indicator of a juvenile’s involvement in serious delinquency. Interventions designed to reduce the delinquency of identified victims may be successful from both a delinquency and a victimization perspective.
Second, more information is needed about juvenile victims who are not involved in risky behaviors and the events surrounding their victimization so that safety precautions for this group can be developed and taught. Programs for intervening with potential perpetrators of such violence also are needed.
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