https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4513-1501
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ABSTRACT
Much is known about the patterning of offending throughout life, but less about the patterning of victimization. In this study, we used data from the Stockholm Life-Course Project (SLCP), a longitudinal study that includes measures of childhood problem behaviour. We analysed offending (criminal conviction and police suspicion), inpatient hospitalization and outpatient care for violent victimization. We replicated the well-established age-crime curve amongst SLCP study members. We found that hospitalization for severe violent victimization was most likely to occur between 20 and 40 years of age. We additionally considered how childhood problem behaviour impacted overall risk and life-course patterning of offending and victimization. Childhood problem behaviour was associated with a greater risk of criminal conviction. But childhood problem behaviour showed inconsistent associations with risk for police suspicion. Childhood problem behaviour was generally associated with greater involvement in crime up to middle adulthood. Childhood problem behaviour was generally associated with a greater risk of victimization. However, we were limited in our ability to estimate the effect of childhood problem behaviour on life-course patterning of victimization due to the rarity of victimization. These results imply a need for larger studies on violent victimization and greater nuance in our understanding of childhood risks and their life-long outcomes.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by a grant from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (P18-0639:1).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.
Notes
1. Swedish studies of self-reported crime have typically been school-based studies of a fixed grade level, which are regularly repeated (e.g. Svensson & Oberwittler, Citation2021). These studies cannot be used to provide information on the age-crime curve as they capture a short window of life and sample new people at each repetition.
2. The proportion of adolescents estimated to be victims of violence amongst surveys using the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (JVQ) is greater, relative to Swedish National surveys (Finkelhor et al., Citation2013; Fisher et al., Citation2015). The JVQ covers a wide variety of offences typically not covered in large surveys. In a Swedish study of a representative sample of roughly 6,000 upper-secondary students, up to 40% of the participants had experienced physical assault using the JVQ as an instrument (Aho, Gren-Landell et al., Citation2016a).
3. Some longitudinal studies spanning into early adulthood have examined trajectories of all types of victimization amongst the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a US representative sample (Semenza et al., Citation2021; Testa et al., Citation2021; Turanovic, Citation2019). Many longitudinal studies ranging into young adulthood, however, have been targeted at a specific type of victimization (e.g. intimate partner violence in Murphy, Citation2011; Swartout et al., Citation2012) or a specific population (e.g. LGBT individuals in Mustanski et al., Citation2016; childhood sexual abuse victims in Papalia et al., Citation2017).
4. Archival data spanning back to childhood were also obtained for the Clientel study members and the Skå study members.
5. A reviewer helpfully observed that, as study members aged, it appeared that they were less likely to have suspicions resulting in prosecution. This observation appears consistent with Swedish research (Brottsförebyggande rådet, Citation2020). It is possible that younger people, relative to older people, are more likely to proceed through the prosecution process (Lindén, Citation2021).
6. One of the two emergency-department hospitals in Stockholm’s inner city is private; however, private hospitals received less than 8% of funding for hospital care in 2002 (Burgermeister, Citation2004).
7. There is an imperfect overlap in birth cohorts between the Skå study members and the Stockholm Boys study members. We estimate that any period-related effects would have little impact on the mean values presented in this study.
8. The relatively high rates of victimization observed amongst SiS study members may indicate the need to implement victimization prevention programmesin residential treatment settings.