Violent Victimization Across the Life Course Moving a "Victim Careers" Agenda Forward

The present study examines violent victimization patterns across the life course and outlines a victim careers agenda for future scholarly inquiry. I analyzed four waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine whether violent victimization prevalence, onset, and persistence during earlier stages of the life course can predict violent victimization risk in adulthood, and whether these relationships are observed independent of current violent offending. Violent victimization in adolescence was significantly related to subsequent risk in adulthood. Even when current violent offending is controlled, those who report early and persistent violent victimization during prior stages of the life course appear particularly vulnerable to subsequent victimization. The findings demonstrate the importance of moving forward with a victim careers agenda and the present study outlines numerous theoretical and empirical avenues for victimization scholars to pursue.