Research indicates truancy and being bullied (otherwise called bully victimization) are independently linked to violent offending. We examine the associations between truancy, bully victimization, and violent offending in a sample of young people who participated in the Ability School Engagement Program (ASEP) truancy reduction experiment. Pre-intervention, half of the sample reported missing school because they were being bullied. Experiment and control participants both exhibited significant reductions in bully victimization and missing school because of bully victimization. Neither groups exhibited significant reductions in violent offending. Contrasting expectations, participants in the control group had significantly larger reductions in missing school because of bully victimization. Post-intervention measures of bully victimization were significantly related to higher odds of violent offending. Bully victimization is a critical factor in understanding the nexus between truancy and violent offending which, if neglected in an intervention (like ASEP) can lead to backfire effects for young people.

研究表明，逃学和被欺负（也称为欺负受害者）与暴力犯罪独立相关。我们在参加能力学校参与计划（ASEP）减少逃学实验的年轻人样本中研究了逃学，欺凌受害和暴力犯罪之间的关联。干预前，一半的样本报告称他们因为被欺负而失学。实验和对照参与者都表现出显着减少了欺负行为，并且由于遭受欺负行为而失学。这两个群体均未表现出暴力犯罪的明显减少。与期望相反，由于欺凌受害，对照组的参与者失学率明显降低。干预后欺凌受害人的措施与暴力犯罪的高几率显着相关。欺负受害者是理解逃学与暴力犯罪之间关系的关键因素，如果忽视干预措施（如ASEP），可能会导致年轻人事与愿违。