Exploring the overlap between victimization and offending among Hong Kong adolescents

Purpose: Claims of a victim-offender overlap have been substantiated in the literature. However, little is known about the joint occurrence of victimization and offending in the Asian context. Methods: Using a sample of 892 secondary school students, this study aims to explore the phenomenon of overlap between offending and victimization among Hong Kong adolescents. Grounded by theoretical propositions of criminological theories (i.e., social learning, self-control, social control, general strain, and routine activity), the adolescents' prevalence of general, violent, and nonviolent offending perpetration and victimization are examined. Results: Findings reveal that different types of offending perpetration and victimization are positively correlated, and multivariate analyses confirmed the link between these two experiences. Logistic regressions indicate that offending perpetration significantly predicted victimization, regardless of the type of offending behavior (general, violent, and nonviolent), with an increase likelihood between 337% and 792%. Bivariate probit models demonstrate a considerable degree of overlap between different types of offending perpetration and victimization. The rho correlations from the unadjusted bivariate probit models suggest the significant overlapping categories of general (80%), violent (75%), and nonviolent (85%) offending. Conclusions: Having high levels of pro-violence attitudes and of a deviant peer influence are found to be a general risk of engaging in offending behavior and of falling prey to victimization. Specifically, deviant peer influence is the only significant risk factor for the joint occurrence of violent offending and violent victimization, while social bonding and deviant peer influence are significant risk factors for the joint occurrence of nonviolent offending and nonviolent victimization. Implications for practice are discussed.