Introduction
Research is equivocal about how the social relationship between victims and offenders
is linked to the emotional, social, and physical consequences of violence. This study
examines the association of victim–offender relationship with the adverse outcomes
reported by injured and uninjured victims of violence.
Methods
The study analyzed 16,723 violent victimizations recorded by the National Crime Victimization
Survey from 2008 to 2018. Multivariable quasi-Poisson models estimated the associations
between the victim–offender relationship and victims’ emotional distress, social distress,
and physical and emotional symptoms. These models also estimated a statistical interaction
between victim–offender relationship and violent injury to examine how this association
differed for injured and uninjured victims. The analyses occurred during 2020 and
2021.
Results
Uninjured victims were more likely to report emotional distress (risk ratio=1.41,
95% CI=1.33, 1.50), social distress (risk ratio=3.12, 95% CI=2.78, 3.51), more physical
symptoms (symptom frequency ratio=1.68, 95% CI=1.51, 1.87), and more emotional symptoms
(symptom frequency ratio=1.13, 95% CI=1.08, 1.18) in family member/intimate partner
violence than in stranger violence. Victims also reported worse outcomes after acquaintance
violence than after stranger violence. For injured victims, these differences narrowed—but
were still significant—in emotional and social distress models. However, the number
of emotional and physical symptoms reported by injured victims did not significantly
vary across victim–offender relationships.
Conclusions
Relational closeness between victims and offenders is a risk factor for adverse outcomes
after violent victimization, and it is more strongly associated with these outcomes
for uninjured victims than for injured victims.
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: January 06, 2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
