Victimization and Poly-victimization in Adolescents

Abstract:
The article focuses on youth victimization and pays a special attention to polyvictimization, i.e. co-occurrence of different types of victimization, which has proven to be a particularly adverse condition. The authors both summarize key findings of previous research and offer results of the Czech survey Výzkum městské mládeže (Urban Youth Survey) from 2015 which targeted youth from 9th grades of schools (N = 1546). The results reveal that an experience with victimization is a commonplace among Czech juveniles and highlight differences in victimization prevalence among certain socio-demographic categories. Furthermore, a poly-victimization index is constructed and specific characteristics of poly-victims are examined and discussed. Overall, the findings are in congruence with previous international research and imply that youth victimization is not a marginal phenomenon in Czechia and its research would highly benefit from inclusion of poly-victimization into its framework.

Keywords:
victimization, poly-victimization, children, Czech Republic

Authors:
Zuzana Podaná, Denisa Okolie

DOI: