Applying Agnew’s Integrated Theory of Crime and Delinquency to Victimization Risk

Abstract

Stemming from the work of Schreck (1999), criminological frameworks have increasingly been reframed to explore victimization experiences. Given developmental and situational changes over time, Agnew’s integrated theory of crime and delinquency provides a potentially profitable framework for explaining victimization that has remained relatively unexplored. To address this gap, the current study investigated whether contemporaneous and lagged effects of life domains outlined within the theory were predictive of violent victimization. Using multiple waves of data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods Longitudinal Cohort Study (PHDCN-LCS), support was obtained for peer domain factors, involvement in offending, and prior victimization. Implications for crime prevention in the form of interrupting the cycle of violence and future directions for testing victimization theory are discussed.