Department of Sociology & Public Policy Center, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DCs, USA.
Trauma Violence Abuse. 2020 Jan;21(1):16-30. doi: 10.1177/1524838017735925. Epub 2017 Oct 11.
The strong positive association between offending and victimization, or the victim-offender overlap, has received considerable amount of research attention in recent years. Empirical research has made important strides in unpacking the sources of the phenomenon, but important questions remain unanswered. Ambiguity surrounds the utility of certain theoretical explanations for the overlap, the nature of the phenomenon, and the methodological tools used to examine its etiology. Owing to these knowledge gaps, the scientific meaning of the victim-offender overlap is unclear. Moreover, a number of potentially important theoretical arguments are rarely subject to empirical testing in this line of research. The purpose of this article is to use a narrative review methodology to provide a critical reappraisal of the theoretical, empirical, and methodological research on the victim-offender overlap and offer directions for ways forward to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon. This review includes critical analysis of 78 academic publications, along with a table that summarizes the key findings and conclusions from 18 critical empirical studies that have contributed to our understanding of the victim-offender overlap. We offer recommendations for the continued development of theoretical and methodological tools to better understand this complex phenomenon.
近年来，犯罪与受害之间的强烈正相关关系，或者说受害者-犯罪者重叠现象，引起了相当多的研究关注。实证研究在揭示这一现象的根源方面取得了重要进展，但仍有一些重要问题没有得到解答。某些理论解释对重叠现象的实用性、现象的本质以及用于研究其病因的方法工具存在模糊性。由于这些知识上的差距，受害者-犯罪者重叠的科学意义尚不清楚。此外，在这一研究领域中，一些潜在的重要理论论点很少受到实证检验。本文旨在采用叙述性综述方法，对受害者-犯罪者重叠的理论、实证和方法研究进行批判性评价，并为进一步发展对这一现象的更全面理解提供方向。本综述包括对 78 篇学术出版物的批判性分析，以及一个表格，总结了 18 项对我们理解受害者-犯罪者重叠现象有贡献的关键实证研究的主要发现和结论。我们为进一步发展理论和方法工具提供了建议，以更好地理解这一复杂现象。
