Associations between Risky Lifestyles and Involvement in Violent Crime during Adolescence

Abstract

Research shows that violent victimization and offending often overlap, and that both outcomes may be related to a risky lifestyle. The author therefore aimed to examine the associations between a risky lifestyle and the probability of being involved in violence as a victim only, offender only, or as a victim-offender, compared with being a total abstainer. In multinomial logistic regression models with data from a sample of adolescents (N = 490), a risky lifestyle was related to a higher probability of crime involvement across all groups compared with total abstainers. However, the significance of specific indicators of a risky lifestyle varied across the different outcomes. Spending a lot of time in the city center at night and frequently being inebriated were related to a higher risk of being a victim only, whereas peer deviance increased the risk for being an offender only. Frequent exposure to criminogenic settings and often being inebriated were related to a higher risk of being a victim-offender. The results indicate that studies on crime involvement and lifestyle must consider each kind of involvement separately. However, not many girls were involved in violent crime as offenders only or victim-offenders, indicating that girls may have risky lifestyles without committing acts of violence.