The Cumulative Financial Costs of Victimization Among College Students at Minority Serving Institutions, 2021-2022 (ICPSR 38929)
Version Date: Apr 29, 2025 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Megan Bears Augustyn, Florida State University;
Marie Skubak Tillyer, University of Texas at San Antonio;
Kellie R. Lynch, University of Texas at San Antonio;
Gillian M. Pinchevsky, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38929.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
The Challenges of Safety and Transitions Study (COSTs) was funded by the National Institutes of Justice (NIJ) to study the costs of victimization amongst a cohort of first-semester college students at minority-serving institutions (MSIs). COSTs consisted of three methodological components: 1) a three-wave prospective, longitudinal survey; 2) official campus enrollment and graduation data; and 3) focus group interviews. Advancing topical knowledge regarding the consequences and costs of victimization was achieved by querying participants about 12 unique types of victimization and a variety of tangible and intangible consequences and costs associated with specific victimization incidents up to one year after victimization.
COSTs participants completed three semi-annual online surveys from the Fall 2021 semester through Fall 2022 (approximately three academic semesters). Incident-based victimization data were collected, and participants were queried about ongoing behavioral, emotional, and financial costs associated with reported victimization incidents for the duration of data collection. Survey data were supplemented in each academic semester by official enrollment and graduation data from the university in which the participant was enrolled at the start of COSTs in order to further assess academic outcomes.
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Restrictions View help for Restrictions
Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reason for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
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This study also includes eight focus group interviews conducted during the Summer and Fall 2022 semesters. These qualitative data are not included in the current ICPSR release (datasets 1 through 7), but may be released in a future update.
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
The purpose of the Challenges of Safety and Transitions Study (COSTs) was to estimate the costs and consequences associated with criminal victimization among first-semester college students at minority-serving institutions (MSIs).
Study Design View help for Study Design
A cohort of 2,388 first-semester students from two minority-serving institutions in the United States completed three semi-annual online surveys between Fall 2021 and Fall 2022. Participants were asked a series of questions about the costs associated with victimization incidents that occurred prior to, and while enrolled at, one of the two subject universities. Responses were organized as both incident-level and person-level data. The researchers also collected official university enrollment and graduation data for participants during the data collection period.
A subset of 57 COSTS participants also participated in one of eight focus group interviews during the Summer and the Fall 2022 semester. These qualitative data are not included in the current ICPSR release (datasets 1 through 7).
Sample View help for Sample
To generate the COSTs sample, first semester students at each university were stratified by classification upon entry (first year student vs. transfer student) and first-generation student status (vs. continuing generation) using university provided data at each university. At each university, students were disproportionately stratified at a 1:1 ratio for classification upon entry and first-generation student status to ensure large enough subsamples for comparisons across first generation student status and first year student status. Target enrollment was 1,200 students from each university (i.e., 300 first-generation first year students, 300 first-generation transfer students, 300 continuing generation first year students, and 300 continuing generation transfer students).
Enrollment in COSTs occurred between October 2021 and December 2021 over a 12 week period. Upon invitation to participate in the study, students were given three weeks to enroll before replacement in the sample. Students were recruited by email, text, and phone calls to participate in COSTs in the specific three-week period (round) until enrollment or written/verbal refusal for participate. Four rounds of invitations to participate in COSTs occurred before the target sample size was achieved. In each round, students were randomly selected from each stratified sampling frame to participate in the study. In Rounds 1 and 2, only 300 students from each sampling frame were randomly selected for recruitment. Based on response rates from Round 1 and 2 (~29 percent), students were oversampled within each strata in Round 3 and Round 4 to generate the desired subgroup sample size before the end of the academic semester (December 2021).
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
Students at minority-serving institutions (MSIs) in the United States.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
These data include incident and person-level data on the costs associated with several forms of criminal victimization. The incident-level data files (DS2, DS4, DS6) include variables about perpetrator demographics, the context surrounding each victimization incident, and the outcomes of each incident. The outcome-related variables describe behavioral, emotional, and financial consequences of each incident. The person-level data files (DS3, DS5, DS7) include many of the same variables as the incident-level files, but organized by respondent rather than incident. The person-level files include additional variables about respondent demographics, enrollment status, perceptions of safety, mental health and emotional outcomes, risk behaviors, and willingness to pay for crime prevention.
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
The overall response rate for COSTs was 28 percent, consisting of 2,388 participants from 8,441 invitations.
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2025-04-29
Version History View help for Version History
2025-04-29 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:
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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.
One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.