Predictors of Injury and Reporting of Intraracial, Interracial, and Racially-Biased Nonsexual Assaults, United States, 2003-2011 (ICPSR 36236)

Version Date: May 16, 2018

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Principal Investigator(s):
Kelly Socia, University of Massachusetts, Lowell; Ráchael Powers, University of South Florida

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36236.v1

Version V1

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Summary

These files are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

This study more thoroughly explored the unique nature of racially- and ethnically-motivated assaults than previous work focused on situational predictors, which was reliant on official statistics and lacked adequate comparison groups.

The data for this study came from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Agency-level data from Law Enforcement Management and Statistics (LEMAS) augmented the NIBRS data for one part of the analyses.

The NCVS contained self-reported incident-level crime data from a nationally representative victimization survey, while NIBRS contains officially-reported incident-level crime data.

There are no data files available with this study; only syntax files used by the researchers are provided.

Citation

Socia, Kelly, and Powers, Ráchael. Predictors of Injury and Reporting of Intraracial, Interracial, and Racially-Biased Nonsexual Assaults, United States, 2003-2011 . Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2018-05-16. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36236.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (2013-R2-CX-0033)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

region

Restrictions

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.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2003 -- 2011 (National Incident-Based Reporting System), 2003 -- 2011 (National Crime Victimization Survey), 2003 (Law Enforcement Management and Statistics), 2007 (Law Enforcement Management and Statistics)

Date of Collection

2003 (National Incident-Based Reporting System, 2003 Extract Files), 2004 (National Incident-Based Reporting System, 2004 Extract Files), 2005 (National Incident-Based Reporting System, 2005 Extract Files), 2006 (National Incident-Based Reporting System, 2006 Extract Files), 2007 (National Incident-Based Reporting System, 2007 Extract Files), 2008 (National Incident-Based Reporting System, 2008 Extract Files), 2009 (National Incident-Based Reporting System, 2009 Extract Files), 2010 (National Incident-Based Reporting System, 2010 Extract Files), 2011 (National Incident-Based Reporting System, 2011 Extract Files), 2003 (First six months and 2004; National Crime Victimization Survey, 2003 [Record-Type Files]), 2004 (First six months and 2005; National Crime Victimization Survey, 2004 [Record-Type Files]), 2005 (First six months and 2006; National Crime Victimization Survey, 2005 [Record-Type Files]), 2006 (2005--2006; National Crime Victimization Survey, 2006 [Record-Type Files]), 2007 (First six months and 2008; National Crime Victimization Survey, 2007 [Record-Type Files]), 2008 (First six months and 2009; National Crime Victimization Survey, 2008 [Record-Type Files]), 2009 (National Crime Victimization Survey, 2009), 2010 (National Crime Victimization Survey, 2010), 2011 (National Crime Victimization Survey, 2011), 2003 (Law Enforcement Management and Statistics (LEMAS): 2003 Sample Survey of Law Enforcement Agencies), 2007 (Law Enforcement Management and Statistics (LEMAS), 2007)

Data Collection Notes

  1. These files are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

  2. There are no data files available with this study; only syntax files used by the researchers are provided.

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Study Purpose

The purpose of the study was to explore bias-motivated offenses by focusing on the unique nature of racially- and ethnically-motivated assaults. To accomplish this analysis, three different aspects of the victimization experience were examined:

  • Likelihood of injury
  • Reporting decisions
  • Clearance rates

Research questions:

  • Do predictors of injury and injury severity sustained from violent incidents differ between intraracial, interracial, and bias-motivated crime?
  • Are conclusions drawn from the above research question comparable between official and unofficial crime data sources?
  • Does inclusion of additional covariates available only in self-report victimization data further predict injury and differentiate between these groups?
  • Is the presence of specialized units or personnel dealing with bias-motivated crimes in a law enforcement agency associated with the clearance rates for these offenses?
  • Do the predictors of reporting an incident to the police differ between intraracial, interracial, and bias-motivated crimes?
  • Among those who did not report, do the reasons for nonreporting differ between the intraracial, interracial, and bias-motivated groups?

Study Design

The National Incident-Based Reporting System (official data) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (unofficial data) studies were analyzed to explore factors influencing the likelihood of any injury among intraracial, interracial, racial bias, and ethnic bias crimes. These same factors were analyzed to review predictions of major injury among cases that involved any injury. Statistical significance was analyzed between the two sources.

The nine NIBRS data sets (2003-2011) were linked, then cases were selected for intraracial, interracial, or bias assault, sexual assault, or robbery crimes and special case-level factors such as victim, offender and situation characteristics, as well as victim injury and clearance outcomes. Multiple imputation addressed missing data. Logistic regressions were used to predict injury outcomes.

The NCVS was used to examine likelihood of reporting and reasons for non-reporting, categorizing differences between reporters and non-reporters. The nine NCVS data sets (2003-2011) were linked, then cases were selected for intraracial, interrracial and racially- and ethnically-motivated violent crimes. Injury and reporting behaviors/motivations as well as demographic and situation characteristics were used. Multiple imputation addressed missing data. Analyses were conducted for all research questions.

Two Law Enforcement Management and Statistics (LEMAS) files (2003, 2007) were used to enhance the same year files as the NIBRS data set. Especially important was information on whether an agency had a specific unit or personnel devoted to bias-related cases in order to analyze if the presence of bias units/personnel is associated with case clearance rates. The LEMAS case clearance analyses linked agency-level data to aggregated case-level NIBRS data and explored whether the presence of bias-crime personnel was associated with agency-level clearance rates for these crimes.

Sample

The study only contains syntax files. The following information relates to the studies from which this study is drawn.

National Incident-Based Reporting System: the study provided a nationwide view of crime based on the submission of crime information by law enforcement agencies throughout the United States.

National Crime Victimization Survey: the program used a stratified multistage cluster sample of any persons in the United States aged 12 and over.

Law Enforcement Management and Statics: the program collected data from over 3,000 general purpose state and local law enforcement agencies, including all those that employed 100 or more sworn officers and a nationally representative sample of smaller agencies.

This study selected specific cases of the three studies listed above as noted in Description of Variables.

Time Method

Time Series

Universe

National Incident-Based Reporting System: Law enforcement agencies in the United States participating in the National Incident-Based Reporting System

National Crime Victimization Survey: All persons in the United States age 12 and over

Law Enforcement Management and Statistics: Publicly funded state and local law enforcement agencies in the United States in 2003 and in 2007

Unit(s) of Observation

National Crime Victimization Survey:

  • household
  • individual
  • crime incident
,

Law Enforcement Management and Statistics:

  • agency
,

National Incident-Based Reporting System:

  • agency
  • crime incident

Data Source

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

Variables from the nine National Crime Victimization Survey data sets (2003-2011) describe:

  • Injury level
  • Intraracial or Interracial incident
  • Bias motivations toward victims: race, ethnicity
  • Victims: gender and age group
  • Offenders: gender, age group, suspicion or presence of alcohol/drugs by offender, if unknown to victim, presence of multiple offenders
  • Weapon use: gun, other weapon, or unknown
  • Location, time of incident
  • Incident type: Robbery or sexual assault or simple/aggravated assault
  • Additional variables selected for second research question include whether bystanders were present (not counting children under the age of 12), whether the victim took self-protective action to protect himself/herself or property, and whether there was a previous incident with the same offender
    •

    Variables from the nine National Incident-Based Reporting System data sets (2003-2011) describe:

  • Injury level
  • Intraracial or Interracial incident
  • Racially/Ethnicity biased incident
  • Victims: gender and age group (hispanic ethnicity used for sensitivity analysis)
  • Offender: gender
    •

    Variables from the two Law Enforcement Management and Statistics files (2003, 2007) describe:

  • Clearance rate of bias crimes in 2003 or 2007 by agency
  • Presence of Bias Unit or personnel in police department to address bias/hate crimes
  • Officer ratio per 10,000 civilians served
  • Civilianization ratio of administrative personnel to full time sworn personnel
  • Formalization percentage (extent that an agency is governed by formal written rules, regulations and policy directives)
  • Minimum officer education
  • Percent non-white officers

    • Response Rates

    Not applicable

    Presence of Common Scales

    None

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    Original Release Date

    2018-05-16

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    Weight

    None

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    Notes

    • These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

    • 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.