Criminal victimization and low self-control: An extension and test of a general theory of crime

TLDR

The study theorizes that low self‑control increases offenders’ risk of victimization and examines how self‑control explains various victimization forms while mediating gender and income effects. The authors reformulate self‑control theory into a vulnerability framework and test its hypotheses using a college student survey. Low self‑control markedly raises odds of personal and property victimization, weakens gender and income effects, remains significant after controlling for criminal behavior, and has broad implications for victimization research.

Abstract

In this paper I theorize that low self-control is a reason why offenders are at high risk of being victims of crime. I reformulate self-control theory into a theory of vulnerability and test several of its hypotheses, using data from a survey administered to a sample of college students. This research investigates how well self-control explains different forms of victimization, and the extent to which self-control mediates the effects of gender and family income on victimization. Low self-control significantly increases the odds of both personal and property victimization and substantially reduces the effects of gender and income. When criminal behavior is controlled, the self-control measure still has a significant direct effect on victimization. These results have many implications for victimization research.