The Relationship between Youth Violence, Victimization, and Educational Outcomes

Abstract

Prior research on the relationship between adolescent violence, victimization, and educational attainment has largely focused on the relationship between victimization experiences and later educational outcomes. Lost in this line of inquiry is a) the relationship between one’s own violent behavior and later educational outcomes and b) the overlap between being a victim and being a perpetrator. The aim of this project is to address those limitations in the literature. Findings show that being both a victim and perpetrator of violence significantly increase the risk of dropping out of school and not attending college. Both aspects of violence have their own unique negative effect on the risk of limited future attainment. While this does not suggest that these youth are definitively at risk for limited achievement later in life, it does suggest that their path to future success is severely inhibited by these violent experiences.