Victimized as a child or youth
| Published date | 01 May 2016 |
| Author | Anna-Karin Andershed,Åsa K Cater,Henrik Andershed |
| DOI | 10.1177/0269758016628945 |
| Date | 01 May 2016 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Victimized as a child
or youth: To whom is
victimization reported
and from whom do victims
receive professional support?
A
˚sa K Cater
O
¨rebro University, Sweden
Anna-Karin Andershed
O
¨rebro University, Sweden
Henrik Andershed
O
¨rebro University, Sweden
Abstract
Being victimized as a child or youth increases the risk of emotional and behavioural problems, and
may call for a report to authorities and professional support. This study investigates how often
young adult males and females in a randomly selected general population in Sweden (n¼2,500)
reported different types of victimization as a child or youth and to whom, from whom they
received professional support, whether it was more common to receive professional support
among those victimized multiple times by different types of crime, and whether there was a
connection between report and support. Analyses reveal that the participants more often
responded that they had not reported their victimization, than that they had reported it. For those
who had, the police was the most common institution to which the victimization was reported. It
was significantly more common for victimized females to both report and receive professional
support than for males. There was a trend towards a greater likelihood of receiving professional
support after higher levels of victimization. In all however, of those whose victimization had been
reported to the authorities, only 22.4% had received professional support to deal with their
experiences of victimization. We conclude that the relatively low prevalence of reporting
Corresponding author:
A
˚sa K Cater, School of Law, Psychology and Social Work, O
¨rebro University, SE 701 82 O
¨rebro, Sweden.
Email: asa.cater@oru.se
International Review of Victimology
2016, Vol. 22(2) 179–194
ªThe Author(s) 2016
Reprints and permission:
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DOI: 10.1177/0269758016628945
irv.sagepub.com
victimization and receiving support documented in this study calls for reflection upon how well
society meets the needs of victims.
Keywords
violence, child, youth, report, support
Introduction
We know from previous studies that being subjected to victimization during childhood or youth
1
increases the risk of emotional and behavioural problems (e.g. Fergusson et al., 2008; Finkelhor
et al., 2005b; Hussey et al., 2006). Being subjected to repeated or multiple types of victimization
seems to yield especially adverse adult psychosocial outcomes (e.g. Cater et al., 2014; Finkelhor
et al., 2007; Radford et al., 2013). We also know from previous research that victimization of
children and youth in various forms is rather common. For instance, recent studies based on self-
report measures in general population samples in many different countries have documented
prevalences of physical victimization by a parent or caretaker among 4%to 29%of young people,
psychological victimization among 4%to 33%, and sexual victimization among 1%of males and
31%of females (e.g. Collin-Ve´zina et al., 2013; Gilbert et al., 2009; Hussey et al., 2006). Victi-
mization through property crime is particularly frequent among children and youth and has also
been shown to have negative psychological outcomes (Finkelhor et al., 2005b). An important
question is then: what support is available for those who are victimized? Society provides both
restitution by the judicial system and professional support
2
in response to the emotional problems
resulting from victimization. This study investigates to what extent and to whom victimization as a
child or youth in Sweden is reported, to what extent and from whom those victimized receive
professional support, whether it is more common to have received professional support in response
to multiple victimization by different types of crime (poly-victimization), and whether reporting of
victimization is connected with receiving support to deal with it.
Reporting of victimization is crucial if child and youth victims are to have their rights and needs
met. For instance, reporting to the police is often necessary for financial compensation from the
offender, an insurance company, or crime victim compensation authorities. Compared to other
countries and regions, a relatively high percentage of serious crimes are reported to the police in
Western Europe, where Sweden ranks fourth out of 25 European countries. Also, Sweden’s victim
policies are more generous than most other EU countries (Van Dijk and Groenhuijsen, 2007).
Unlike several EU countries, however, take-up rates of victim support in Sweden have not risen
during the last 20 years. Only 21%of Swedish victims wanting specialized support have actually
received it, and Sweden ranks only eighth of 22 European countries in victim satisfaction (Van
Dijk and Groenhuijsen, 2007).
Social services must know about instances of victimization if they are to execute their responsi-
bility to protect children and youth from harm and provide them with professional psychosocial
support. Severalstudies have shown that most crimeswith child or youth victims are never reported
to the police or to other authorities (BRA
˚, 2009; Finkel hor and Ormrod, 1999; Fi nkelhor et al., 2001).
Violent crimesare substantially lesslikely to be reported to the policeor any other authoritywhen the
victims are young than when they are adults (BRA
˚, 2009; Finkelho r and Ormrod, 1999).
The inclination to report victimization also seems to vary between types of crime. As an
example, of violent crimes against juveniles in North America, 28%were reported to the police,
180 International Review of Victimology 22(2)
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