Blackness as Threat?: An Examination of the Situation, Emotional, and Physical Effects of Interracial Victimization Using the NCVS

• In Event: Innovative Research Using Data from the National Crime Victimization Survey

Abstract

The relationship between race, ethnicity, and victimization has been studied extensively using the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). Works in this area have found that violent victimization is largely intraracial, that is, individuals are more likely to be violently victimized by those of the same racial and/or ethnic background compared to a different race/ethnicity. Moreover, patterns and trends in victimization consistently find non-Hispanic Blacks have a disproportionately high risk of violent victimization compared to other racial and ethnic groups. Blacks’ heightened risk as victims (and perpetrators) of violence may have made them more susceptible to general perceptions of threat and danger. Using NCVS data from 2012 to 2014, we explore whether victims – regardless of race and ethnicity – report differences in the emotional and/or physical consequences of their experience when they perceive that the offender is Black.

Authors

• Jennifer Gatewood Owens, University of Missouri - Kansas City

• Toya Like, University of Missouri - Kansas City