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A Mixed Methods Exploratory Examination of Victim Injury and Death: Effect of Weapon Type and Victim Resistance during Sexual Assaults by Strangers.

SelectedWorks Author Profiles:

Joan A. Reid

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2015

Abstract

Extending prior research regarding victim injury during sexual assault, the current study employed mixed-methods sequential explanatory research design to identify predictors of victim injury and victim death in 361 attempted and completed sexual assaults committed by 72 repeat sex offenders who assaulted strangers. Results from multinomial path analysis indicated that being female and offender coercion increased the likelihood of victim resistance, which in turn elevated the likelihood of victim injury. Divergent from the predictors of victim injury, the risk of victim death increased with victim age, offender alcohol use, and offender weapon possession. Exploratory analyses suggest that certain weapons resulted in higher probability of victim injury or victim death within the context of victim resistance. Exploratory analysis of qualitative data indicated that crime event order was not uniform—in some cases victim resistance preceded victim injury and in some assaults victim injury occurred prior to or was unrelated to victim resistance. The study findings highlight the need for further investigation of victim survival strategies when offenders possess different types of weapons.

Comments

Abstract only. Full-text article is available only through licensed access provided by the publisher. Published in Victims & Offenders: An International Journal of Evidence-based Research, Policy, and Practice. Doi: 10.1080/15564886.2015.1033580

Language

en_US

Publisher

Taylor & Francis Inc.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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