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Research Question 3:
Is there a difference in weapon use against female vs. male victims of intimate partner violence?

Click here to download SPSS code

The following code creates the variables and matches the segments necessary to answer the research question.  When using this code, be sure to insert the paths and the file names of the data files to be used for the analysis. If you need any assistance working with the syntax provided, please contact us.

The assumptions for the following example are:

  1. The data file was created as described in "Reading A Multi-Level Data File Into SPSS";
  2. An aggregated flat file was created as described in "Creating An Incident-Level Aggregated Flat File";
  3. The individual data segments were saved in separate files as described in "Preparing Individual File Segments For Detailed Analysis";
  4. The victim data segment was retrieved, new variables created, and a new file named and saved as shown in "Intimate Partner Single Segment Analysis - Research Question 1"; and
  5. The matched file saved in "Intimate Partner Multiple Segment Analysis - Research Question 1" was retrieved and new variables created.
Defining the Variables
This example will use the matched file saved in the first intimate partner research question because the created variables of intimate partner relationship and intimate partner most serious violent offense and the existing gender and weapon use variables are needed to answer this question.

GET FILE = 'Directory:\Path\Intimate Partner_victimoffense.sav'.

A new variable MSWPN is created to represent the most serious weapon used in the incident.  Each NIBRS record can have up to three weapons recorded.  First, VALUE LABELS are assigned to the three weapon variables (WEAPON1, WEAPON2, and WEAPON3).   Second, the values of the three weapon variables are grouped into six categories by a RECODE.  These six categories are:  FIREARM (1)  includes firearm, handgun, rifle, shotgun, and other firearm; OBJECT (2) includes knife or cutting instrument, blunt object, and motor vehicle; PERSONAL WEAPONS (3) remains as personal weapons; OTHER WEAPON (4) includes poison, explosives, fire or incendiary device, drugs, or narcotics or sleeping pills, asphyxiation, and other; NONE (5) remains as none; and UNKNOWN (9) includes missing or not applicable entries.  Third, the new variable MSWPN is computed where the value of 1 represents the most serious weapon category.   Fourth, the VALUE LABELS are assigned for MSWPN and, finally, the value 9 is defined as the MISSING VALUE.

VALUE LABELS weapon1 to weapon3
'11' 'Firearm'
'12' 'Handgun'
'13' 'Rifle'
'14' 'Shotgun'
'15' 'Other Firearm'
'20' 'Knife/Cutting Instrument'
'30' 'Blunt Object'
'35' 'Motor Vehicle'
'40' 'Personal Weapons'
'50' 'Poison'
'60' 'Explosives'
'65' 'Fire/Incendiary Device'
'70' 'Drugs/Narcotics/Sleeping Pills'
'85' 'Asphyxiation'
'90' 'Other'
'95' 'Unknown'
'99' 'None'
'00' 'Default'.

RECODE weapon1 to weapon3
('11', '12', '13', '14', '15' = 1)
('20', '30', '35' = 2)
('40' = 3)
('50', '60', '65', '70', '85', '90' = 4)
('99' = 5)
('95', '00' = 9)into wpn1 to wpn3.

COMPUTE mswpn = min.1(wpn1 to wpn3).

VARIABLE LABELS mswpn 'Most Serious Weapon'.
VALUE LABELS mswpn
1 'Firearm'
2 'Object'
3 'Personal Weapon'
4 'Other Weapon'
5 'None'
9 'Unknown/Missing/Not applicable'.
MISSING VALUES mswpn (9).

Producing the Output
The CROSSTABS command generates a table for all victims of an intimate partner offender-victim relationship that shows the count and percent within female and male victim gender groups for each category of most serious weapon reportedly used against the victim.

CROSSTABS
  /TABLES=mswpn BY v_gender
  /FORMAT=AVALUE TABLES
  /CELLS=COUNT COLUMN.

A total of 145,248 valid cases are used in the analysis.  The resulting cross-tabulated table shows that, within gender classification, female victims in intimate partner violent encounters are most likely (76.7%) to report having a personal weapon used against them and least likely (1.9%) to report having a firearm used against them.   Quite similarly, male victims in intimate partner violent encounters are also most likely (67.5%) to report having a personal weapon used against them and least likely (1.4%) to report having a firearm used against them.

Table 1.