Offenders’ experiences of violence: A comparison of male and female inmates as victims

Criminologists emphasize the role of violent victimization as both cause and consequence of female crime; this seems less true in research on male offenders. Few gender comparisons of offenders’ victim experiences exist. Yet there are theoretical reasons to believe that for both sexes victimization may both motivate crime and result from criminal involvement. Using self‐report data, this study compared the domestic and criminal victimization experiences of male and female inmates. Both had similar physical child abuse histories. The greatest divergence was found in women's high rates of assaults by intimate partners and men's high rates of assaults by strangers; however, for both sexes these experiences were common. Inmates abused as children were younger at first arrest and showed greater participation in crime. Greater criminal involvement was also associated with more criminal victimization by strangers. In supporting several models linking crime and victimization, these findings suggest that criminologists should address how victimization histories are intertwined with criminal behavior for both sexes.