A COMPARISON OF THE RESPONSES OF PREADOLESCENTS AND ADOLESCENTS IN A NATIONAL VICTIMIZATION SURVEY

This article compares the responses of 10- and 11-year-olds with those of 12- to 16-year-olds in a national telephone survey of 2,000 youth concerning victimization and victimization prevention education. Altho ugh the overall participation rate was guile good for both groups, par ents were slightly more likely to bar the younger children from taking part in the survey. The younger children also disclosed fewer of the most sensitive kinds of victimization such as sexual abuse. However; b y contrast, they did not give any more problematic responses to the ke y questions dealing with victimization and its details, and their rate s for both family and nonfamily assaults, which comprised most of the victimizations, were equivalent to those of older children. The younge r children also did not report any greater levels of distress in respo nse to the survey. The few difficulties in interviewing the 10- and 11 -year-old children and the quantity of valuable information they can p rovide suggest that they should be included in victimization surveys.