Social support and health outcomes in crime victims

Crime victimization is linked to poor physical and mental health. We investigated the protective role of social support using self-report data from 15,884 individuals in the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR). Victimization, particularly sexual assault, was associated with poorer general health and increased depression, while lower social support correlated with worse health outcomes. Moderation analyses revealed that social support buffered health impacts of sexual and violent victimization, though effects were weaker for property crimes. Using monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) same-sex twin pairs discordant for victimization, we controlled for shared environmental and genetic confounding. These analyses indicated that violent and property crimes were not linked to negative health outcomes, but sexual victimization was associated with poorer general health. While higher social support buffered violent victimization's general health impacts in combined MZ and DZ pairs, this effect was not significant in MZ pairs alone. Other interaction effects from multivariate analyses did not persist in discordant twin analyses, suggesting that the apparent buffering effects of social support partly reflect genetic and environmental confounding. These findings underscore the need to account for such confounding to clarify relationships between victimization, social support, and health. • Victimization associated with poorer health and increased depression • Social support buffers effects of sexual and violent victimization on health. • Sexual victimization linked to poor health even in discordant twin analyses • Buffering effects of support diminish after adjusting for familial confounding. • Social support itself remains a positive influence on health, even after accounting for unmeasured familial factors.