The Double Edged Sword of Gender Equality: A Cross- National Study of Crime Victimization

• In Event: New Frontiers in Cross-National Research on Victimization

Abstract

Existing research confirms that opportunity/routine activities theory is applicable to individual crime victimization, but victimization has rarely been linked—via analyses of cross-national data—to individual-level lifestyle factors and macro-level opportunity factors. The present study examines whether nations’ income inequality and gender equality explain individual-level crime victimization. It simultaneously investigates links between the crime victimization of a nation’s citizens and that nation’s restrictions of its citizens’ basic human needs. The study measures relevant demographics and conceptualizes neighborhood disorganization as a reflection of motivated offenders’ presence and effective guardians’ absence, testing hypotheses about links between these macro-level factors and individual-level crime victimization in specified countries. The two types of data utilized in this study come from the World Value Survey’s sixth wave, collected 2010–2014; taken from the Social Progress Index Report; and from World Bank information. The study’s final sample numbers 68,397 respondents living in 46 countries. Results suggest that income inequality and gender equality increase the risk of victimization, while such risk is lessened when basic human needs are fulfilled. Some macro-level factors are found to moderate relationships between neighborhood disorganization and victimization. Future exploration of the role of macro- and individual-level opportunity/lifestyle factors might further explain crime victimization.

Authors

• Celia Lo, Texas Woman's University

• William Ash-Houchen, Texas Woman's University

• Heather Gerling, Texas Woman's University