title: Childhood Family Income and Violent Victimization During Youth and Young Adulthood: Trends in Hospital Care During 1988-2007 in Finland.
abstract: The purpose of the current study was to examine whether the relationship between childhood family income and risk of violent victimization has changed between 1988 and 2007 in Finland, as prior studies have suggested that socioeconomic differences in exposure to violence have increased during the recent decades. Existing studies have mostly relied on survey data, while such trends in hospital discharge data-a data source that covers the total population well and is not compromised by attrition or self-report bias-have not been thoroughly investigated before. The current study used register-based individual-level data from 1988-2007 (n = 283,505) to study changes in the relationship between childhood family income and victimization risk among 15- to 30-year-old Finnish men and women. We found a persisting difference in violent victimization between the top and bottom income quintiles for both men and women. While the estimates suggest that this difference has increased rather than decreased during the observation period particularly among women, this change was not statistically significant. These conclusions remain after controlling for the composition of income quintiles. Research could benefit from more extensive use of administrative hospital records in analyzing of the trends and causes of serious violence.
authors: University of Helsinki, Finland mikko.aaltonen@helsinki.fi.
authors: Mikko
authors: M
authors: Aaltonen
authors: University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors: Pekka
authors: P
authors: Martikainen
authors: University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors: Heta
authors: H
authors: Moustgaard
authors: University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors: Riina
authors: R
authors: Peltonen
authors: University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors: Hanna
authors: H
authors: Remes
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D014754:Violence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: income; victimization; violence exposure; youth violence