Re-victimization patterns in a national longitudinal sample of children and youth

Abstract

Objective: To understand to the degree to which a broad variety of victimizations, including child maltreatment, conventional crime, peer, and sexual victimizations, persist for children from 1 year to the next. Design: A national sample of 1467 children aged 2-17 recruited through random digit dialing and assessed via telephone interviews (with caretakers and youth themselves) about a comprehensive range of victimization experiences in the previous year, and then re-assessed (72.3% of baseline sample) after a 1-year interval. Results:The risk for re-victimization in Year 2 was high for children victimized in Year 1, with risk ratios ranging from 2.2 for physical assault to 6.9 for sexual victimization. Victimization of any one type left substantial vulnerability even for different types of subsequent re-victimization (e.g., property crime victimization was associated with higher risk of sexual victimization the next year). Children with four or more types of victimization in Year 1 ("poly-victims") were at particularly high risk of persisting poly-victimization. Persisting poly-victimization was more likely for children who scored high on anger/aggression and who had recent life adversities. Desistence from poly-victimization was associated with having more good friends. Onset of poly-victimization in Year 2, in contrast to persistence from Year 1, was associated with violent or maltreating families, family problems such as alcohol abuse, imprisonment, unemployment and family disruption. Having more older siblings acted as both a risk factor and a protective factor for different groups of youth. Conclusion: Children previously victimized in 1 year are at higher risk of continued victimization, and the polyvictims are at particular risk. These findings suggest the potential merit of identifying these high-risk children and making them priority targets for prevention efforts.

Apresentação

“…Posteriormente, um juiz especialista na área e com domínio da língua inglesa realizou a backtranslation. Os resultados desta primeira parte do estudo corroboram com estudos realizados anteriormente, demonstrando que em um único evento podem acontecer várias vitimizações (Finkelhor et al, 2005) e uma vitimização pode aumentar a probabilidade da ocorrência de outras vitimizações (Finkelhor, Ormrod, & Turner, 2007 …”

L’exposition à la violence familiale

“…En effet, l'apparition d'une première victimisation dans la vie d'un individu augmente de 2 à 18 fois les risques d'en vivre une autre comparativement aux individus n'en ayant jamais subi (Dong et al, 2004). De plus, un enfant victime de violence dans une année a de deux à sept fois plus de risques d'être revictimisé sous une autre forme dans la même année (Finkelhor et al, 2007). Bien que de plus en plus d'auteurs s'intéressent à l'accumulation de violence dans la vie des jeunes (Hamby & Finkelhor, 2000 ;Elliott et al, 2009), il n'y a pourtant pas encore de consensus clair en regard des conséquences de cette accumulation sur leur bien-être.…”

Violência doméstica e sexual em mulheres e suas repercussões na fase do climatério

“…1,5,6,7 Although existing research 8,9,10 has contributed to improving the quality of the investigation of the violence suffered by women, many instruments are still limited by a variety of methodological shortcomings 1,4,5,7,11 . Such probing tools concerning violence suffered in childhood/ adolescence ignore the dimensional features of traumatic events 12,13 . These are the frequency, severity or duration that may play a crucial role in both the physical and psychological impact of the person victimized 14 .…”

“…Many instruments focus solely on only the physical or sexual abuse and, underestimating other forms of victimization such as emotional abuse and emotional neglect 1,15,16 . In the literature review 13,17 , those contemplating such dimensions have directed the focus more to the child/adolescent and reproductive phase adult life of women 3,15 , yet not quantifying the impact of violence on the health of these women.…”