Objective: The current study explores exposure to direct and vicarious war victimization experiences on violent behavior.
Design: Using a random sample of 1,247 adult Ukrainian citizens from two large cities collected in 2017, we examine potential theoretical mechanisms that help explain the relationship between war victimization and offending.
Findings: Analyses are pending. Based on prior research we expect exposure to war victimization (both direct and vicarious) to be a straining experience that leads to violent behavior. Moreover, we expect the link between war victimization and violence to be mediated by various negative affective states such as anger and PTSD. In addition, we also anticipate delinquent peers and self-control to be important moderating mechanisms of the link between war victimization and violence.
Conclusions: Recent work has called on researchers to make war a topic of study in criminology. The necessity of such work is especially warranted given the current events taking place in Ukraine. With our findings, we seek to advance our understanding of the causal mechanisms that link exposure to war and future violent behavior. Doing so can help inform policy related to interventions and services to reduce violence among individuals exposed to the violent and traumatic events of war.

Presenters: Matthew R. Kafafian, Ekaterina Botchkovar, Olena Antonaccio, Lorine Hughes, Robert J. Johnson