Offending and Victimization: Exploring Key Correlates and Factors

This report delves into the intricate relationship between victimization and offending, highlighting the significant role of education in this correlation. It explores various factors such as bullying, student performance, attendance, school disorganization, and the influence of sociological theories like anomie and social control. The report presents evidence indicating that victimization can lead to offending through pathways such as revenge and displaced retaliation. It also examines how educational systems, including teachers and role models, impact the likelihood of individuals becoming either offenders or victims. The study analyzes the impact of socio-economic factors, like poverty and unemployment, on crime rates and their connection to educational attainment. Ultimately, the report emphasizes the importance of education in fostering social, emotional, and psychological competence in students to prevent offending and victimization. The report concludes with a discussion on how education can reduce crime through employment and awareness, thus decreasing the number of victims.

Correlate of Offending and Victimization1
CORRELATE OF OFFENDING AND VICTIMIZATION
Student’s (Name)
Professor’s (Name)
College
Course
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INTRODUCTION
The relationship between victimization and offending has widely been documented with
researchers suggesting that, victimization may result to negative psychological, physical and
emotional reactions leading victims to commit crimes (Menard 2012). There are several
pathways that can explain how victimization leads to offending, a few could include revenge,
displaced retaliation and victim becoming friends with offender. Offenders become victims is
retaliation by victims and lack of attention by responsible people.
In understanding the correlation between victimization and offending, it is important to look at
factors that have enforced this correlation such as health, gender, ethnicity and education.One
key correlate that is discussed below is educationfocusing on bullying, student performance,
attendance, school disorganization, attitude,anomie theory and social control theory.
EVIDENCE BASE
According to a report generated by ISRD, 8% of the students who experienced bullying in their
schools ended up committing 33% of juvenile crimes (Ttofi, Farrington, Lösel, & Loeber 2011).
Bullying in schools has far reaching psychological consequences if not taken care of, this act
introduces the student to violence and the need to isolate themselvesfrom other people in the fear
of being bullied, these victims later become the offenders who are detached from the society.
Students performance also is a huge factor in victim-offender overlap. Most students who
perform poorly or below average in school leading them to repeat classes are prone to be violent
and withdrawn from others. They handle their frustration by being violent and antisocial making
them possible offenders and at the same time targets to being victimized by other students.

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Sociologists explain this behavior using anomie or strain theory which investigates how
individuals deal with their frustrations. In the educational system students deal with their
frustrations by frustrating others, withdrawing themselves, pretense and conformity.
There has been a direct relationship between students’ attendance and crime. Truant students are
likely to be offenders since they are idle and some of them have negative attitudes towards other
students. On the other hand, they are likely to be victims since they lack protection from elder
people in the society who have ignored or abandoned them.
The impact of company and relationships inside and outside the school has hugely contributed to
victim-offender overlap. Social control theory explains the types of relationship that a person is
supposed to have and the impact of imbalance of these relationship (Beckley et al. 2018).
Students who hang around deviant students are likely to be offenders to the community and
students but they also can be victims of other similar groups.
Education systems play a very huge role in individual’s life through the provision of role models,
teachers and other staff are very key in instilling the correct motives into the students. Some
students lack good role models and they end up being menace to the society while others learn
from role models who mentor them ensuring they manifest their best (Howell 2010).
According to AustraliaBureau of Statistics high crime rates are due to poverty, unemployment
and low levels of educational attainment. Individuals of low socio-economic level are likely to
commit crimes due to lack of employment and poverty. These individuals also become victims
of street wars and extra judicial killings.
The aim of educations systems is to instill knowledge that will assist students to be better
individuals in the society. The teacher provides the knowledge and the student decides what to
do with the knowledge received. Most students use it for the correct purposes until they become

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victims, once they have been victimized they decide to retaliate based on their knowledge
thereby being even worse offenders.
School disorganization also contributes to the correlation between victimization and offending,
schools with poor curriculum, lazy teachers and poor supervision instill bad morals into students,
failing to teach them interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. This leads to bright students who
cannot relate with the society resulting to deviant behaviors according to anomie and social
control theory.
Lastly, parents who failed to undergo education are prone to raising their children poorly
undermining the role of education in the society thus establishing poor foundation in the lives of
their children. These kids are likely to become offenders and victim of crime (Fabio, Tu, Loeber,
and Cohen 2011).
CONCLUSION
Education is a key factor in the victim-offender overlap, school takes a lot of time in an
individual’s life imparting not only intellect but also interpersonal and intrapersonal skills.
Education defines the path of an individuals through the curriculum and the friends that a person
interacts with during one’s school time.
As such, it is important to ensure that there is supervision and continual modifications in the
education sector in ensuring that students socially, emotionally and psychological competent.
Educational will also help in reducing offenders from the streets due to employment and
awareness thus reducing victims.

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REFERENCE
Beckley, A.L., Caspi, A., Arseneault, L., Barnes, J.C., Fisher, H.L., Harrington, H., Houts, R.,
Morgan, N., Odgers, C.L., Wertz, J. and Moffitt, T.E., 2018. The developmental nature of the
victim-offender overlap. Journal of developmental and life-course criminology, 4(1), pp.24-49.
Fabio, A., Tu, L.C., Loeber, R. and Cohen, J., 2011. Neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage
and the shape of the age–crime curve. American Journal of Public Health, 101(S1), pp. S325-
S332.
Howell, J.C., 2010. Gang Prevention: An Overview of Research and Programs. Juvenile Justice
Bulletin. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Menard, S., 2012. Age, criminal victimization, and offending: Changing relationships from
adolescence to middle adulthood. Victims & offenders, 7(3), pp.227-254.
Ttofi, M.M., Farrington, D.P., Lösel, F. and Loeber, R., 2011. The predictive efficiency of school
bullying versus later offending: A systematic/meta‐analytic review of longitudinal
studies. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 21(2), pp.80-89.