Associations between Risky Lifestyles and Involvement in Violent Crime during Adolescence

Abstract

Research shows that violent victimization and offending often overlap, and that both outcomes may be related to a risky lifestyle. The author therefore aimed to examine the associations between a risky lifestyle and the probability of being involved in violence as a victim only, offender only, or as a victim-offender, compared with being a total abstainer. In multinomial logistic regression models with data from a sample of adolescents (N = 490), a risky lifestyle was related to a higher probability of crime involvement across all groups compared with total abstainers. However, the significance of specific indicators of a risky lifestyle varied across the different outcomes. Spending a lot of time in the city center at night and frequently being inebriated were related to a higher risk of being a victim only, whereas peer deviance increased the risk for being an offender only. Frequent exposure to criminogenic settings and often being inebriated were related to a higher risk of being a victim-offender. The results indicate that studies on crime involvement and lifestyle must consider each kind of involvement separately. However, not many girls were involved in violent crime as offenders only or victim-offenders, indicating that girls may have risky lifestyles without committing acts of violence.

Conceptualizing Lifestyle and Routine Activities in the Early 21st Century: A Systematic Review of Self-Report Measures in Studies on Direct-Contact Offenses in Young Populations

“…Although reducing offending may constitute an effective means of reducing victimization, there is nonetheless a missing piece (i.e., another activity) that affects youth to commit an offense in the first place by exposing them to the opportunity. Studies that primarily focus on illegal activities as predictors of violent victimization also risk omitting the victimization experienced by those who are not involved in crime, which is problematic since this group may be large among youth (see e.g., Engström, 2018).…”

Predicting Fraud Victimization Using Classical Machine Learning

“…Accordingly, the more that individuals are in situations or environments that expose them to potential offenders, the more likely it is that they will experience victimization [ 21 ] (p. 167). Victimization then is based on the premise that different lifestyles lead to differential exposure to criminogenic environments in which victimization is likely to occur [ 22 ] (p. 901). To go further.…”

“…It is not simply being in a criminogenic environment and dealing with high-risk individuals that matters but also the differential risks associated with being in an environment and the individuals that influence one’s susceptibility to victimization [ 24 ] (p. 104). LET involves considering how lifestyle affects the risk or odds of being victimized and therefore can be seen as a probabilistic theory [ 22 , 25 ].…”

“…Most of the previous research on LET has been conducted on street-level crimes [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 26 ]. Lifestyle research in this area tends to be focused on victims’ association with offender and exposure to criminogenic environments as strong predictors of victimization [ 22 , 24 ].…”

“…Most of the previous research on LET has been conducted on street-level crimes [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 26 ]. Lifestyle research in this area tends to be focused on victims’ association with offender and exposure to criminogenic environments as strong predictors of victimization [ 22 , 24 ]. However, with the increase in financial crime, researchers have begun to explore the empirical utility of applying LET to financial victimization [ 24 , 28 , 30 ].…”