Polyvictimization and Polyperpetration of Personal Violence in a High School Sample

Background and Purpose:

Past research suggests that high school students experience violence, such as dating violence, sexual harassment, and stalking, at relatively high rates.  While the rates of victimization among this population is concerning, it must be noted that they are also perpetrators of these types of violence.  Further, some studies indicate that co-occurrence of violence is common among youth.  Although research traditionally has been conducted on each type of violence separately, recent increase in research on co-occurring violence signals importance of understanding this complex real-life experience for this population.

This study aimed to extend the literature by examining the experience of co-occurring violence victimization as well as perpetration by individual characteristics, including sex, grade, sexual attraction, and exposure to parental partner violence.  The study focused on two types of victimization (polyvictimization) and two types of perpetration (polyperpetration).

Methods:

This study used a secondary dataset from a randomized controlled trial that evaluated the effects of a primary prevention program in reducing rates of violence among high school students.  Students were asked to complete an anonymous 99-question survey in 26 high schools in one state.  The sample included 19,190 youth in 9^th through 12^th grades (54% female, 79% White). 

The measures assessed frequency of victimization and perpetration of psychological dating violence, physical dating violence, sexual violence, sexual harassment, and stalking.  Items were dichotomized to create variables indicating either experience or non-experience of each type of violence.  Individual characteristics variables were also dichotomized into female and male (sex), younger (9-10^th grades) and older (11-12^th grades), exclusively heterosexual or not (sexual attraction), and exposure or non-exposure to parental partner violence.

The UCINET software was used for network visualization that plotted all violence victimization and perpetration types to examine tie-strength among them, indicating co-occurrence.  Based on  their greater tie-strength, two combinations of polyvictimization were selected for the study: psychological dating violence-physical dating violence and sexual harassment-stalking.  One combination of polyperpetration was also selected: psychological dating violence-physical dating violence.

Results:

A series of cross-tabulation revealed that the experiences of polyvictimization and polyperpetration were significantly differed based on individual characteristics.  More female than male students were polyvictims of psychological-physical dating violence and sexual harassment-stalking.  More females were also identified as polyperpetrators.  Younger students were represented more in polyvictim group, particularly for sexual harassment-stalking.  More younger students were also polyperpetrators than older students.  Non-heterosexual students reported experiencing both combinations of polyvictimization at much higher rates than heterosexual students.  They were also polyperpetrators of psychological-physical dating violence at much higher rates.  Students exposed to parental partner violence were represented in polyvictim and polyperpetrator groups at much higher rates than students without exposure.

Conclusions and Implications:

The findings revealed that there were particularly stark differences in rates of polyvictimization and polyperpetration based on sexual attraction as well as exposure to parental partner violence.  Prevention efforts in high schools should include program content and materials relevant to non-heterosexual students.  Intervention with children and adolescents in household with parental partner violence should be conducted with long-term effects in mind.