Prevalence and Measurement of the Victim-Offender Overlap: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Josephine L. Virgara, Tyson Whitten, Nadine M. Connell, Melissa J. Green, Stacy Tzoumakis
Research indicates that individuals may experience both victimisation and offending across the life course, known as the victim-offender overlap. We conducted a systematic review with meta-analytic synthesis to examine the prevalence and strength of the victim-offender overlap and assess whether reported estimates vary according to methodological choices. Articles published between 2012 and 2023 were identified through ProQuest, PsycINFO, Embase, and Criminal Justice Abstracts. Studies were included if they reported numerical overlap between direct victimisation (e.g., violent, sexual, and property) and offending (e.g., violent, property, and drug-related) behaviours, operationalised via self-, peer-, teacher-, or official records; gender and offence/victimisation subtypes were extracted where reported. Studies focusing solely on cybercrime, bullying, or indirect victimisation were excluded. Risk of bias was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute Checklist for Prevalence Studies. Sixty-eight studies including 549,377 analytic participants were included. Three random-effects meta-analyses synthesised prevalence (population-level, offender-conditional, and victim-conditional;