The victims are 11 times more likely to have been arrested for property
offenses like larceny and car theft, and six times more likely to have
been arrested for violent crimes, than non-victims, say Adam Dobrin, Ph.D.,
of Florida Atlantic University and John Brusk, M.P.H., of Western Michigan
University.
The researchers found that the risk of being a homicide victim increases
by 60 percent with each additional arrest, when age, race and gender are
taken into account. Their findings are published in the November-December
issue of the American Journal of Health Behavior.
Dobrin and Brusk suggest that the link between criminal arrests and the
risk of becoming a homicide victim is a concern that goes beyond the justice
system.
“The field of public health needs to take a greater interest in
preventing violence, and by recognizing criminal offending as a risk factor
to subsequent victimization, it can attempt to reduce fatal encounters,” Dobrin
says.
The researchers did not delve into the reasons why committing
crimes increases the risk of being a homicide victim, but previous studies
point to increased
interactions with potentially violent criminals and possible retribution
by the offender’s own victims or their friends and family.
Dobrin and Brusk compared the arrest records of 105 homicide
victims and an equal number of non-victims drawn at random from driver’s license
records in Prince George’s County, Md., in 1993.
Dobrin and Brusk found that black individuals were almost
six times more likely to be homicide victims than others. Men were nearly
four times
more likely to be killed, they found. After accounting for age, race and
gender,
the researchers found that any arrests sharply increased a person’s
risk of being killed.
The researchers acknowledge that a third factor, perhaps a personality
trait like impulsiveness, might be characteristic of both criminal offenders
and homicide victims.
