Hierarchical Linear Models of Criminal Victimization

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9310193 Land This project will develop, estimate, and evaluate hierarchical linear models for several datasets on criminal victimization, thus taking into account the implicit hierarchical structure of victimization survey data - from individuals to neighborhoods to cities or urban areas. This approach will integrate and compare the two major theoretical approaches to victimization: 1) the routine activities/crime opportunity approach that stresses individual-level covariates such as age, sex, and life style characteristics, and 2) other approaches that emphasize characteristics of aggregate units, such as neighborhoods and cities. The research will address critical criminological and sociological issues that have been at issue in the assessment of variations in victimization rates. The research will improve scientific understanding of the factors that put people at risk of being the victims of crime. In so doing it will demonstrate the power of new techniques of statistical analysis, thus encouraging social scientists in several fields to use them. Knowledge of the factors that affect the risk of being a victim of crime will be useful in reducing that risk. ***