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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.