A Comparative Study of Adolescent Sexual Victimization in South Korea and the United States
Open Access
Author:
Kim, Min
Area of Honors:
Sociology
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Richard B Felson, Thesis Supervisor Stacy Silver, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
adolescent sexual victimization cross-national South Korea United States
Abstract:
This study examines the relationship between victim/offender characteristics and sexual victimization among adolescents in South Korea and the United States. Quantitative methodology, involving the chi-square test and binary logistic regression model, is applied to the Korean Crime Victim Survey (KCVS) – Juvenile Victimization and the sub-sample of National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), consisting of adolescent girls age 13 to 18. In the individual risk factor analysis, three variables are explored: age, family structure, and country. The findings show that American girls are at greater risk of being sexually victimized than Korean girls. Both the United States and South Korea adolescents living with neither parent are at the highest risk of sexual victimization. Only in the United States, older adolescent girls are at greater risk of being sexually victimized. In the incident analysis, the tendency of the victim to engage in self-protection and some offender characteristics (age and single offender relationship) are different for the two countries. Findings suggest: i) American girls use more physical resistance during the incident compared to Korean girls, ii) American girls are more victimized by younger adults than Korean girls, and iii) American girls are more victimized by their intimate partners than Korean girls. Opportunity Theories and conservativeness on sexuality are used to explain that opportunities for sexual victimization differ in South Korea and the United States.
