Violent Behaviors, Violent Victimization, and Doping Agents : A Normal Population Study of Adolescents / Willy Pedersen, Lars Wichstrøm, Morten Blekesaune. - (Journal of Interpersonal Violence 16 (2001) 8 (August); p. 808-832)
- DOI: 10.1177%2F088626001016008005
Abstract
The authors investigated the association between doping agents (mostly anabolic-androgenic steroids) and involvement in violence and experience of violent victimization in Oslo, Norway. The sample consisted of 10,828 adolescents aged 14 to 17 years. Of the adolescents, 11.5% had been offered doping agents and 1.8% had used doping agents. When confounding variables were controlled for, there was an association between exposure to doping agents and own violence for both genders, but use of doping agents had no additional effect. The same pattern was found with regard to victimization. However, when only the most serious victimization episodes were considered, increased risk for users of doping among boys but not girls was found. Doping agents may serve as a marker of a violent subculture more than being a causal factor in the etiology of violence. However, use of doping agents may also result in a big appearance in male users, which may make them a target for youth violence.
