Does the system protect the most vulnerable adolescents? Victimization among youths attended by the child welfare and the juvenile justice systems

Objective: Adolescents placed in residential facilities and juvenile justice centers constitute high-risk samples. These youth have not only been exposed to severe and multiple forms of victimization, but also are more likely... [ view full abstract ]

Objective: Adolescents placed in residential facilities and juvenile justice centers constitute high-risk samples. These youth have not only been exposed to severe and multiple forms of victimization, but also are more likely to be exposed to other forms of violence and revictimization while they are under the custody of the system that is expected to protect them. The present study aimed to examine the victimization experiences of adolescents while cared by public systems. Methods: The Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (Finkelhor, Hamby, Ormrod, & Turner, 2005) was applied to 95 adolescents placed in residential facilities and 46 youth under the supervision of juvenile justice centers in Spain to examine the prevalence of victimization during the last year. Most of them were males (65.2%), aged 12 to 17 years old (M = 15.16, SD = 1.70). Results: Eighty-six point five percent of adolescents suffered at least one type of victimization while attended by the public system. They experienced conventional crimes (69.5%), witnessing and indirect victimization (58.2%), peer and sibling victimization (51.8%), victimization by caregivers during visits (23.4%), electronic victimization (23.4%) and sexual victimization (7.1%). Females were more likely to report caregiver (OR = 2.98) and sexual (OR = 4.94) victimization than males. Almost half of the adolescents were defined as poly-victims (30.4% were defined as low poly-victims suffering from 4-to-6 victimization types and 16.3% were defined as high poly-victims suffering 7 or more victimization types during the last year). Conclusion: Adolescents under the state custody or supervision continue to experience high rates of victimization. Those public service systems conceived to protect the most vulnerable adolescents in our society, do not prevent them from these experiences. Both systems should take the current rates carefully; provide a safe way to report victimization, and design interventions to diminish and prevent revictimization among institutionalized youth.