Women as Victims of Violence
Women As Victims of Violent Crime: A look at the FBI stats. by Lili Pintea-Reed, PhD
Popular images of women as victims in violent crime have probably strayed far from reality. Rather than a mature women attacked by strangers in alley ways, the average female victim is young (often a child), poor, and a passing aquaintance of the attacker. The perpetrator is most likely an older male of the same race, with a past history of violence toward others. Further, women are not the most common victims of violence, most violence is committed by men on other males.
If you asked the average person on the street to describe the "typical" victim of violent crime, they would most likely describe a woman in mid-life pulled down an alley way off a busy city street who is robbed and raped by a group of attackers of a different race. This is the image frequently portrayed in film, television, and popular fiction. It has become so pervasive a series of images that we seldom question this perception of violence in America. However, an examination of the most recent USA Bureau of Justice Statistics Reports indicate a much different picture.
The average victim of violent acts is a male attacked by another male (Ringel, 1997). The only type of violence where women are more frequently victimized than males is sexual assault (Greenfield, 1997). The women who are most commonly victimized, rather than mature, are young, poor, and an aquaintance of the perpetrator, who generally is a much older male of the same race (Craven, 1996).
While domestic violence is the second most frequent factor in violent crime against women, it was surprisingly below "violence by aquaintance" as a risk factor --- with just 29 percent of all violence to women committed by "intimates" as opposed to the 40 per cent rate by "aquaintances," and the 23 percent rate for "strangers." The only part of the popular image that appears to be accurate is the higher rate of violence per capita in urban areas as opposed
Popular images of women as victims in violent crime have probably strayed far from reality. Rather than a mature women attacked by strangers in alley ways, the average female victim is young (often a child), poor, and a passing aquaintance of the attacker. The perpetrator is most likely an older male of the same race, with a past history of violence toward others. Further, women are not the most common victims of violence, most violence is committed by men on other males.
If you asked the average person on the street to describe the "typical" victim of violent crime, they would most likely describe a woman in mid-life pulled down an alley way off a busy city street who is robbed and raped by a group of attackers of a different race. This is the image frequently portrayed in film, television, and popular fiction. It has become so pervasive a series of images that we seldom question this perception of violence in America. However, an examination of the most recent USA Bureau of Justice Statistics Reports indicate a much different picture.
The average victim of violent acts is a male attacked by another male (Ringel, 1997). The only type of violence where women are more frequently victimized than males is sexual assault (Greenfield, 1997). The women who are most commonly victimized, rather than mature, are young, poor, and an aquaintance of the perpetrator, who generally is a much older male of the same race (Craven, 1996).
While domestic violence is the second most frequent factor in violent crime against women, it was surprisingly below "violence by aquaintance" as a risk factor --- with just 29 percent of all violence to women committed by "intimates" as opposed to the 40 per cent rate by "aquaintances," and the 23 percent rate for "strangers." The only part of the popular image that appears to be accurate is the higher rate of violence per capita in urban areas as opposed