Citation

Kaylen M, Pridemore WA, Roche SP. Crim. Justice Rev. 2017; 42(3): 291-314.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Georgia State University Public and Urban Affairs, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0734016817724503

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The United States experienced a dramatic decline in interpersonal violence rates between the early 1990s and mid-2000s. This decline, however, was much steeper in urban and suburban relative to rural areas. Prior research showed changing demographic composition can account for a substantial amount of change in inequality in victimization rates. We employed National Crime Victimization Survey data and counterfactual modeling to determine if changes in demographic composition--including proportion of population young, unmarried, male, unemployed, and in several income groups--of urban, suburban, and rural areas were partially responsible for changes between 1993 and 2005 in (1) area-specific aggravated assault victimization rates and (2) urban-suburban, urban-rural, and suburban-rural victimization rate ratios.

RESULTS showed changes in individual demographic characteristics played a very minor role in changes in area-specific assault rates. The one exception was income, which explained a substantial amount of change in victimization rates across all three areas. Changes in demographic composition explained a greater amount of change in rural relative to urban and suburban victimization rates. Changes in demographic composition across these three area types were also responsible for a small proportion of the large changes in the urban-rural and suburban-rural victimization rate ratios over time.

Language: en