Читать книгу Criminology For Dummies - Steven Briggs - Страница 71

The following personal characteristics have been linked to victimization in some way or another:

 Age: Your age is a significant factor primarily because so many crimes are committed by young men (see Chapter 11 for more on the link between age and criminality). Thus, people who hang out in the same places that young men do are much more likely to be victimized. Someone between the ages of 20 and 24 is more than twice as likely to be the victim of a violent crime as a person older than 65. Generally speaking, the older you get, the safer you are.However, as people become elderly, they do become more susceptible to property crimes, such as fraud and theft. Scam artists throughout the world focus their energy on identifying older folks whom they can easily confuse and defraud. (For a more detailed discussion of property crimes, turn to Chapter 6.)

 Race: Does a person’s race play a role in victimization? Here are some facts about the link between race and victimization in 2019:For all violent crimes in 2019, African Americans were slightly less likely to be victimized than whites.Asian Americans were the least likely to suffer violence.Considering all types of serious crimes, including property crimes, Hispanics were the most likely to be victimized. However, between blacks, Hispanics, and whites, the difference in victimization was small, less than .3 percent in 2019.Most criminologists agree that these race victimization stats reflect a number of complicated factors. For example, each community where certain racial or ethnic groups are more likely to live has its own characteristics. And each racial and ethnic group experiences its own cultural trends regarding two-parent homes, income disparities, identification with gangs, and so on.In Chapter 13, I discuss societal factors that can lead to greater crime.

 Gender: Although the crime victim movement often emphasizes crimes that mostly affect women, such as rape and domestic violence, the truth is that except for sex crimes, men are much more likely to become crime victims than women. Also, men are more likely to be victimized by strangers, while women are more likely to be victimized by people they know.

 Income: As you may expect, the lower your household income, the greater your chances of being the victim of a crime. Again, this link between income and victimization is partly a reflection of the community you live in. As I discuss in Chapter 13, the poorer the neighborhood, the higher the crime rate generally is.