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status attainments Abstract Considerable research documents the consequences of criminal violence for victims. At the same time, a strong relationship exists between age and risk of violent victimization; risk is greatest in childhood and adolescence. This article joins these two issues by examining the implications of violent victimization for personal and social development. The discussion is divided into three sections. The first section situates violent victimization in the life course by examining age-differentiation in victimization risk. With high risk during adolescence, victimization is most likely to occur during a period of the life course in which a variety of life course trajectories are formed. The second section reviews research on the implications of victimization for life course development with respect to psychological distress and well-being, involvement in crime and deviance, and educational and socioeconomic attainment. Finally, the third section proposes a theoretical framework for understanding the myriad life course consequences of victimization and suggests directions for future research. In examining the role of violence in shaping individual life courses, this article links criminological and sociological inquiry to further understandings of the social factors that influence individual development.

More attention to the ways in which interpersonal violence is conceptualized, measured, and screened for is crucial. Specifically, while women have greater exposure to IPV, and subsequently a greater range of health problems, the effects on men should not be ignored.

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Marriage is central to theoretical debates over stability and change in criminal offending over the life course. Yet, unlike other social ties such as employment, marriage is distinct in that it cannot be randomly assigned in survey research to more definitively assess causal effects of marriage on offending. As a result, key questions remain as to whether different individual propensities toward marriage shape its salience as a deterrent institution. Building on these issues, the current research has three objectives. First, we use a propensity score matching approach to estimate causal effects of marriage on crime in early adulthood. Second, we assess sex differences in the effects of marriage on offending. Although both marriage and offending are highly gendered phenomena, prior work typically focuses on males. Third, we examine whether one's propensity to marry conditions the deterrent capacity of marriage. Results show that marriage suppresses offending for males, even when accounting for their likelihood to marry. Furthermore, males who are least likely to marry seem to benefit most from this institution. The influence of marriage on crime is less robust for females, where marriage reduces crime only for those with moderate propensities to marry. We discuss these findings in the context of recent debates concerning gender, criminal offending, and the life course.

Families are central in the unfolding life course. They have both internal and external dynamics that reflect and characterize the modern life span, and a life course perspective has particular utility for understanding the role and implications of families for individuals and society. The purpose of this paper is 3-fold. First, we offer a family life course perspective that delineates core concepts of roles, role configurations, and pathways, specifies the links between them, and highlights the importance of linked lives and structural context. Second, we elaborate a latent class approach for modeling the multilayered dynamic interdependencies that characterize modern family life. Third, we provide an empirical example by considering the timing of childbearing, teen parenthood, and its place in the transition to adulthood using women's data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (N ¼ 2,191). We conclude by discussing further avenues of family research that are enhanced with a life course approach and complementary latent structure methodology.Families are central in the unfolding life course. Transitions into and out of families characterize movement across the life span. These may include adoption of family roles in the transition to adulthood, marital disruption and reformation during the period of midlife, the second ''singlehood'' brought upon by the death of a spouse, and a role reversal resulting from potential dependency, financial and otherwise, on one's children in the late adult years. Stages of the life course are also defined by familial status, including childhood defined by dependency and adulthood defined by role transitions and status markers such as parenthood. Family dynamics, both internal and external, reflect and characterize the modern life course. A life course perspective has particular utility for understanding the role and implications of families in society and development over the life span.The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, we elaborate a life course perspective that delineates core concepts of roles, role configurations, and pathways, as well as specifies the links between them. These links include the interrelation of family and other social roles, the significance of ''linked lives,'' and the interrelations of families, life courses, and social stratification. Second, we elaborate a latent class approach that models the multilayered dynamic interdependencies of modern family life. Third, we apply this approach to a key area of family research: the timing of childbearing and teen parenthood and their implications for the transition to adulthood. We conclude by discussing further avenues of family research that would be enhanced with a life course-latent structure approach. FAMILIES IN A LIFE COURSE CONTEXT: INTERDEPENDENCY OF ROLES, ROLE CONFIGURATIONS, AND PATHWAYSLife course research is premised on the notion that human development involves the order and

Although research consistently shows that women feel unsafe in a variety of situations, the social sources of these perceptions have not been clearly identified. This article examines, theoretically and empirically, the influence of sexual harassment on perceptions of safety among women. Because perceptions of safety among women are largely related to fears of sexual victimization, sexual harassment, particularly when it involves strangers, should indicate sexual vulnerability and typify particular contexts as dangerous and threatening. Using data from a national sample of Canadian women, the authors first examine the prevalence of stranger and nonstranger sexual harassment and then examine their influence on perceptions of safety. The findings indicate that stranger harassment is more prevalent and more extensive than nonstranger harassment and that stranger harassment more strongly influences fear of victimization. The implications of these findings are discussed.

There is increasing speculation about links between violent victimization in childhood and adolescence and socioeconomic disadvantage in later adulthood, yet little work, either theoretical or empirical, has examined this issue. This paper integrates research on social and psychological consequences of victimization with theory and research on socioeconomic attainment to propose a theoretical model that situates adolescent victimization in the socioeconomic life course. Examination of data from a national sample of American adolescents (ages 11-17 in 1976) indicates a chain-like sequence in which victimization diminishes educational selfefficacy, which subsequently undermines educational performance and attainment. Through diminished educational attainment, adolescent victimization has substantial and wide-ranging effects on socioeconomic attainment in early adulthood. Theoretical and policy implications of these findings are discussed.A key issue for research on adolescence is the degree to which it sets the stage for later life. Adolescent experiences are studied to identify contexts, orientations, experiences, and behaviors that determine later life-course JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE, 14(2), 127-158