title: Polyvictimization and Youth Violence Exposure Across Contexts.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The current research used latent class analysis to uncover groups of youth with specific victimization profiles and identify factors that are associated with membership in each victimization group.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study used data from National Survey of Children Exposure to Violence II. Random digit dialing and address-based sampling were used to obtain a nationally representative sample of 2,312 youth ages 10-17 years. Phone interviews, averaging 55 minutes in length, were conducted with caregivers to obtain both consent and background information and then with youths themselves.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Six groups of youth emerged: (1) nonvictims (26.4%), (2) home victims (8.4%), (3) school victims (20.8%), (4) home and school victims (21.3%), (5) community victims (5.4%), and (6) polyvictims (17.8%). Polyvictims were likely to have been victimized in multiple settings by multiple perpetrators and experienced the most serious aggravating characteristics, including incidents involving a weapon, injury, or a sexual component. Youth in the polyvictim class experienced the highest number of different victimizations types in the past year and had the most problematic profile in other ways, including greater likelihood of living in disordered communities, high probabilities of engaging in delinquency of all types, elevated lifetime adversity, low levels of family support, and the highest trauma symptom scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study supports the contention that a core basis of the particularly damaging effects of polyvictimization is the experience of victimization across multiple domains of the child's life.
authors.affiliation: Crimes Against Children Research Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire; Department of Sociology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire. Electronic address: heather.turner@unh.edu.
authors.forename: Heather A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.affiliation: Crimes Against Children Research Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shattuck
authors.affiliation: Crimes Against Children Research Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire; Department of Sociology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Finkelhor
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Sewanee: The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee.
authors.forename: Sherry
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hamby
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D058445:Bullying; D002648:Child; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000069581:Exposure to Violence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States
keywords: Polyvictimization; Trauma symptoms; Violence