AGE, CRIMINAL VICTIMIZATION AND OFFENDING: CHANGING RELATIONSHIPS FROM ADOLESCENCE TO MIDDLE ADULTHOOD

The finding that victims and offenders are often the same individuals has led to attempts at explaining the positive correlation between victimization and offending. Much of the evidence for the positive relationship between victimization and offending, however, was based on samples of adolescents and young adults, or on data with other limitations. In the present study, we use longitudinal self-report data on victimization and offending in a national probability sample to examine the impacts of victimization on offending and offending on victimization, controlling for sociodemographic and theoretical predictors of both, to see whether the relationship is consistent across the life course from adolescence to early middle age. The results suggest that the relationship between being a perpetrator and being a victim of crime changes over the life course, and that explanations for the victimization-offending relationship need to take this life course variation into account.