Criminal Victimization Among Women in Cleveland, Ohio: Impact on Health Status and Medical Service Usage, 1986 (ICPSR 9920)

Version Date: Jan 12, 2006

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Principal Investigator(s):
Mary P. Koss, University of Arizona

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09920.v1

Version V1

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Summary

The impact of criminal victimization on the health status of women is the focus of this data collection. The researchers examined the extent to which victimized women differed from nonvictimized women in terms of their physical and psychological well-being and differences in their use of medical services. The sample was drawn from female members of a health maintenance plan at a worksite in Cleveland, Ohio. Questions used to measure criminal victimization were taken from the National Crime Survey and focused on purse snatching, home burglary, attempted robbery, robbery with force, threatened assault, and assault. In addition, specific questions concerning rape and attempted rape were developed for the study. Health status was assessed by using a number of instruments, including the Cornell Medical Index, the Mental Health Index, and the RAND Corporation test battery for their Health Insurance Experiment. Medical service usage was assessed by reference to medical records. Demographic information includes age, race, income, and education.

Citation

Koss, Mary P. Criminal Victimization Among Women in Cleveland, Ohio:  Impact on Health Status and Medical Service Usage, 1986. [distributor], 2006-01-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09920.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (85-IJ-CX-0038)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

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Time Period(s)

1986

Date of Collection

1986-06 -- 1986-12

Data Collection Notes

  1. SPSS program files, which create new variables and perform statistical calculations, are available.

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Study Purpose

Crime is a major source of stress for its victims. To the extent that stress is linked to illness, criminal victimization may be associated with medical service usage. This study was conducted to explore the impact of criminal victimization on the psychological and physical well-being of women. Women were the focus of the study in order to examine the disproportionate effects of interpersonal violence. The study was conducted at a worksite in Cleveland, Ohio. In order to increase the availability of complete medical histories, participants were members of a worksite health maintenance plan. Plan members were randomly selected and contacted by telephone or mail to arrange interviews.

Study Design

The study was conducted at a single worksite in Cleveland, Ohio. To increase the availability of medical histories, respondents were members of a worksite health maintenance plan. Data consist of self-assessments of physical and psychological health conducted in personal interviews and objective data collected from medical records. To assure confidentiality, interviewers were not employees of the health maintenance plan. Interviewers received instruction in the interview protocol. The survey was developed using the "Total Design Method" in order to maximize response rates.

Sample

Two sampling methods were used. Approximately 20 percent of the female members of the health maintenance plan were contacted by telephone. This resulted in 194 completed personal interviews. To augment the number of victimized women included in the sample, screening surveys were sent to all women health plan members, resulting in another 219 completed interviews.

Universe

Adult women who were members of a health maintenance plan at a worksite in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1986.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individuals.

Data Source

personal interviews, and medical records

Data Type(s)

Description of Variables

Interviews covered the extent to which women were victimized by crime and their usage of medical services. Questions used to measure criminal victimization were taken from the National Crime Survey and focused on purse snatching, home burglary, attempted robbery, robbery with force, threatened assault, and assault. In addition, specific questions concerning rape and attempted rape were developed for the study. Health status was assessed by using a number of instruments, including the Cornell Medical Index, the Mental Health Index, and the RAND Corporation test battery for their Health Insurance Experiment. Medical service usage was assessed by reference to medical records.

Response Rates

For individuals contacted by telephone: 19 percent resulting in 194 interviews, including both victims and nonvictims of crime. For individuals contacted by mail: 45 percent resulting in 219 additional victims of crime. The two contact methods yielded 413 interviews with complete data available for 390 of them.

Presence of Common Scales

None.

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Original Release Date

1994-01-04

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Koss, Mary P. CRIMINAL VICTIMIZATION AMONG WOMEN IN CLEVELAND, OHIO: IMPACT ON HEALTH STATUS AND MEDICAL SERVICE USAGE, 1986. Tucson, AZ: Mary P. Koss [producer] 1986. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1993. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09920.v1

2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 3 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.

2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 10 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.

2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to reflect these additions.

1994-01-04 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Standardized missing values.
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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.