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Fighting Back: A Test of the Subculture of Violence Thesis

NCJ Number
122125
Journal
Criminal Justice Policy Review Volume: 2 Dated: special issue (1987) Pages: 325-336
Author(s)
I H Marshall; V J Webb
Date Published
1987
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Correlates of type of self-protective action taken by crime victims were examined by using National Crime Survey (NCS) data on criminal incidents over a ten-year period (1973-1982).
Abstract
The usefulness of the subculture of violence thesis for the interpretation of victim responses to personal crime was the primary focus of the study. The importance of contextual (neighborhood) characteristics in relation to individual characteristics in explaining victim behavior was also explored. None of the variables measuring victims' position in relation to the subculture of violence proved to be a significant predictor of victim response. With multiple regression analysis, the total amount of variance explained by all employed variables was extremely low (R2 = .088). The analysis failed to establish the substantive significance of environmental characteristic for the analysis of victim responses. 5 tables, 17 references. (Author abstract modified)