Self-control, risky lifestyles, and violent victimization: A longitudinal study of the youth in South Korea

Abstract

Self-control and lifestyles/routine activities approaches are useful in explaining risk of criminal victimization however there are two significant issues which are not fully addressed. First, most studies in victimization literature examined respective influence of self-control and lifestyles/routine activities on victimization without considering structural relationships. Second, there is lack of research on sex invariance in the association. The purpose of the current study is to address the two issues with the first three-year data of the Korean Youth Panel Survey, including 2491 elementary students. Structural equation modeling showed that self-control had significant influence on all the lifestyle and guardianship measures. However, self-control had only indirect effect on violent victimization through either deviant peer association or parental attachment. Multiple group SEM indicated both sex differences and similarities in the relationships. For male students, self-control influenced violent victimization through deviant peer association while self-control affected victimization through parental attachment for female adolescents.