Delving into the Heart of Victimization Risk: Examining the Interactive Relationship between Demographic Factors and Context

• In Event: Violent and Property Crime Victimization Social Context and Hot Spots

Abstract

Routine activities theory and its derivatives (i.e., incorporation of lifestyles into the routine activities approach and criminal opportunity theory) are the most widely used theories in explaining victimization risk. Nonetheless, there are some limitations in terms of the theory’s explanatory extent as it relates to differences in victimization risk among demographic factors and context. Specifically, the applicability of these victimization theories vary across race/ethnicity, gender, age, marital status, and contextual factors. In other words, measures of routine activities and lifestyles do not always account for differences in demographic factors as expected. For this reason, I seek to gain a comprehensive understanding of how demographic and contextual factors interact with one another to explain victimization risk. To reach this aim, an alternative methodological analysis is implemented that produces combinations based on the aforementioned characteristics. The results of these analyses will gauge the prevalence of both sets of factors across different victimization types.

Author

• Amy Eggers, University of South Florida