Citation

DeLisi M, Jones-Johnson G, Johnson WR, Hochstetler A. Crime Delinq. 2014; 60(1): 85-105.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0011128709354036

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Criminal victimization is associated with a cascade of negative effects on social development, but research has primarily focused on children and adolescents. Less is known about the effects of criminal victimization on psychosocial functioning of Americans age 50 and older. Relying on individual-level data from Waves 1 and 2 of a longitudinal panel study of older adults--the Americans' Changing Lives study--the current study explored the effects of criminal victimization on self-esteem and self-efficacy separately for Whites and African Americans. Net of the effects of employment, income, depression, age, sex, self-esteem, and self-efficacy, criminal victimization reduced self-esteem and self-efficacy among African Americans but not Whites. However, Whites who had greater difficulty dealing with their victimization evinced lower subsequent self-esteem. Greater difficulty with their victimization was also modestly associated with subsequent self-efficacy for Whites and African Americans. Implications and directions for future research are provided.

Language: en