A Longitudinal Examination of the Relationship between Physical Aggression and Violent Victimization among Urban Minority Chicago Youth and Young Adults

Abstract

Empirical evidence has been accumulating suggesting that victims and offenders share common risk factors and are often one and the same. Guided by this extant literature, this study provides a longitudinal examination of the relationship between physical aggression and violent victimization among a large sample of 2,671 urban minority youth and young adults from Chicago. The results from a series of bivariate probit regression models, which allow the equations for physical aggression and violent victimization to be estimated simultaneously, reveal strong evidence of a victim- offender overlap. Additional results suggest that this victim-offender overlap cannot be merely explained away by a commonality of risk factors and demographics alone. Study limitations and policy implications are also discussed.