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Older Adult Single Segment Analysis

Research Question 1: For which violent crimes perpetrated in a residence are adults aged 65 or older more likely than people aged 64 or younger to be victimized?   

This example uses NIBRS data to identify the ages of victims, specifically victims over the age of 65. Prior to NIBRS, national data were not available to address this question. NIBRS provides the opportunity to investigate this type of issue.

The data source for this research question is the 1996 NIBRS hierarchical data file. There were 1,487 agencies in nine states reporting during 1996. The file used for the analysis is an incident-level aggregated flat file, created by combining multiple segments of data. (See Creating an Incident-Level Aggregate Flat File for a detailed explanation of this process.) Variables from the following segments were used: administrative, victim, offender, offense, arrest, and property. Although these six segments were used, not all variables from all segments were needed for this analysis.

Variables were then created for the most serious offense, location of offense and victims over the age of 65. The method of analysis is a cross-tabulation comparing percentages.

Table 1 shows incidents involving victims over 65 in comparison with victims under 65;   4.3% of older adults were the victims of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, compared with only .9% of younger victims.  Older adults were also more often the victims of robbery (30.2%) compared with younger victims (4.6%).  Adults aged 65 or older are nearly five times more likely than younger adults and juveniles to be the victim of murder or nonnegligent manslaughter in a home or residence and about six and one-half times more likely to be the victim of robbery in a home or residence.

Table 1.


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