Digital Commons Network^™

In recent years, it has been suggested that technological and scientific advancements have made the world a safer place, yet the fear of risk and threats to safety is higher than ever. This theory suggests that people are increasingly basing decisions about risk behaviors on the potential impact on their reputation. Specifically, the stigma of taking risks has been alleged to be a primary factor inhibiting risk-taking behavior. This claim, however, has remained theoretical and without empirical tests to determine its validity. The present study uses data collected from a random sample of college students, including data from open-ended responses …

Although research on the age-crime curve has made significant advances in the past few decades, our understanding of victimization has not benefited to the same degree. The present study examines the age-victim curve to explore victimization trajectories, which increases our understanding of risks over time through different life pathways. Using data from the Offending, Crime and Justice Survey, a national longitudinal survey in England and Wales, trajectory modeling is used to estimate different violent victimization trajectories for people aged 10 to 29 over four years of data. Analyses indicate the presence of four distinct victimization trajectories, including: rarely victimized, young …

Though much research has explored bullies and bullying victims, little has been done to explore the long-term effects on those who have been bullied. Separately, a growing body of evidence suggests that there is a victim-offender overlap, in which many victims are or become offenders themselves. Taken together, this suggests that bullying victims may themselves be at elevated risk for involvement in deviance or crime. The present study uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) to explore this issue, utilizing propensity score matching to control for the shared predictors of offending and victimization. Given that bullying …

The Grasmick et al. scale is one of the most frequently used measures in criminology. Regardless of how common the scale is used, questions remain about its dimensionality and the nature of forming a composite measure from its 24 individual components. This study examines whether a composite measure is the most effective method for using the scale with a series of analyses using different approaches to combining - or not combining - these measures. Based on data from a sample of over 1,500 college students, the results indicate that a single-factor composite of the 24 items is the least effective …

In the debated topic of violent video games and violent behavior, empirical evidence has been mixed. Some studies support the assertion that there is a causal or correlational link between gaming and violence, while others do not find such support. Recent advances have demonstrated that adequately controlling for background characteristics that might result in a selection bias decrease the effect sizes. However, it remains unclear how strong of an effect video game playing has in comparison to other risk factors. The present study uses data from over 6,000 eighth grade students to examine the effects of playing violent games. Using …