Testing the Situational Explanation of Victimization among Adolescents

Objectives: This study aimed to test situational theories of victimization by answering three research questions, namely to what extent victims are actually victimized while being exposed to risky situations, whether the relation between victimization and situational elements is causal, and which elements of a situation are risky. We distinguished the type of activity, the company that individuals keep, the place of the activity, and the time of the activity. Methods: Data were collected among adolescents in The Hague, the Netherlands, using space-time budgets. These provided detailed information on situational elements for each hour across a period of four days. Multivariate fixed effects logit analyses were used to ensure that the results were not due to stable differences between individuals. Results: A total of 55 individuals reported 63 incidents of victimization. Results confirmed most hypotheses. Especially, the relation between delinquency and victimization was extraordinarily strong. Alcohol consumption, presence of peers, absence of authority figures, and being in a public place also increased the risk of victimization. Conclusions: Confirming major victimization theories, victimization was shown to occur during and because of exposure to risky situations. The hypothesized elements of risky situations were shown to have independent effects on victimization.