Aging & Social Change: Ninth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Using the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) aggregate data from 1999 through 2016, this paper examines the long term trends of violent crime against individuals 65 years of age or older. It also provides a detailed examination of contextual factors of violent victimization across age groups, including the relationship between the victim and offenders, the perceived age, gender, and race of offenders, use of a weapon by the offender, self-protection behavior utilized by the victim, and the location of the victimization. Second, the differential outcomes of a victimization will be examined across age groups including whether victims sustained injuries, if these injuries required medical care, whether police were notified of the victimization, and if so, the police response. And finally, multivariate models will predict the likelihood of sustaining injury as the result of a victimization to determine whether older individuals are more likely to sustain injuries net of other important variables such as self-protective behavior, victim/offender relationship, and weapon presence. Age specific models will determine whether the factors that affect injury are the same or different for younger versus older victims of violence.