Katie Cyr

Lifetime Prevalence of Multiple Victimizations and Its Impact on Children’s Mental Health

This study sought to document lifetime experiences of individual categories of victimizations and polyvictimization using the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire among children from the province of Quebec (Canada) to examine whether polyvictimization predicts mental health symptoms and to assess whether categories of victimization still contribute to mental health symptoms after considering polyvictimization. Polyvictimization accounted for the most variability in scores for depression, anxiety, and anger/aggression compared with individual victimization categories. None of the individual categories of victimization made an independent contribution to the prediction of trauma scores, once polyvictimization was considered.

Gender and Victims’ Expectations Regarding Their Role in the Criminal Justice System: Towards Victim-Centred Prosecutorial Policies

Therapeutic jurisprudence is an interdisciplinary approach to law that offers a rich way of looking at law and to study the extent to which legal rules, procedures or practice promote the psychological well-being of the people it affects. Law is a tool and people who engage the criminal justice system do so for a reason. As such it is important to consider the extent to which legal procedures meet victims’ expectations. In this chapter, we examine victims’ expectations regarding their role in the criminal justice system. Following a discussion of recent international policy developments regarding victims of crime and victims of violence against women in particular, we consider possible gender differences and how the victim’s relationship with the offender affects their expectations, including the awareness of possible future victimization.

From Victimization to Criminalization: General Strain Theory and the Relationship Between Poly-victimization and Delinquency

ABSTRACT Although it is well established that victimization and delinquency are related, it is not clear how this relationship works, and victims and offenders are still often studied and treated as two distinct groups. General strain theory views victimization as a form of injustice, which can give rise to anger and eventually lead to delinquency. The authors examine victimization, in particular polyvictimization, as a criminogenic factor. Based on a sample of 1,400 youths 12–17 years old in Quebec (Canada), they examine polyvictimization in relation to delinquency as well as negative emotions that can result from victimization namely anger, depression, and posttraumatic stress. The findings show support for general strain theory and highlight the importance of anger for the relationship between victimization and juvenile delinquency.