Revitalizing Victimization Theory by Travis C. Pratt Jillian J. Turanovic

Author:Travis C. Pratt, Jillian J. Turanovic [Travis C. Pratt, Jillian J. Turanovic]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781000367928
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2021-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

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Theoretical Perspectives on the Victimization of Women

Candace Kruttschnitt and Timothy Kang

In order to understand the relevance of various theories put forth to explain women’s victimization we need to know how often, and under what circumstances, women are victimized. Simply put, these data allow us to assess whether there are specific contexts in which our extant theories of victimization do, or do not, apply to women.

The majority of information we have on the victimization of women focuses on violent victimization and is derived from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).1 NCVS data are based on self-reports from individuals age 12 or older living in households. Violent crimes included in the survey are rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault. NCVS also reports on domestic violence (victimizations by family members and intimate partners) and violent crimes that involved weapons or injury. Although information on domestic violence, intimate partner violence (IPV), and violence involving injury are reported, they are subsets, or not mutually exclusive, of the four main violent crimes (Morgan & Truman, 2018).

Generally, these data show few gender differences in the rates of non-lethal violent victimization. In 2017, 49% of the males and 51% of the females reported a non-fatal violent incident (Morgan & Truman, 2018, table 10). Moreover, unlike the gender gap in offending, this gender parity in victimization has remained relatively stable over the past decade while tipping slightly toward more female victimizations (see Rand, 2008).2

This picture of rough gender parity in violent victimizations changes when we look at the most serious type of victimization, homicide, and two types of victimization that disproportionately involve women: Intimate partner violence and rape and sexual assaults. In the case of homicide, men represent about 80% of the victims and this has remained relatively stable over time and place (Gartner, 2011; Lauritsen & Heimer, 2008).3 However, when we turn to homicides involving intimate partners, females make up 70% of the victims. Declines in the rates of intimate partner homicides have occurred for both sexes, but the declines have been greater for males relative to females (Catalano, Smith, Synder, & Rand, 2009; Lauritsen & Heimer, 2008).

Women’s victimization by intimate partners is less frequent than their victimization by either acquaintances or strangers and these intimate victimizations have declined over time (Catalano et al., 2009; Lauritsen & Heimer, 2008; Xie, Heimer, & Lauritsen, 2012).4 Although it is assumed that women’s rates of intimate partner victimization exceed those of men, the use of different measures of violence have complicated this issue. When researchers use the Conflict Tactics Scale to measure intimate violence, which does not tap the nature or extent of injury, men are more likely to be victims of intimate partner violence than women (Straus, 2004). However, surveys that capture more serious forms of violence that result in injury find that women are more likely to be victimized than men are (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000).

Sexual assaults and rape measured by the NCVS include completed, attempted, or threatened acts. Roughly 91% of the victims are

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