Research Question 2: What violent offenses did intimate partners commit and where were the offenses committed?

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The following code creates the variables and matches the segments necessary to answer the research question. When using this code, be sure to insert the path and the file name of the data file to be used as well as to be saved (both of which occur twice in this syntax). If you need any assistance working with the syntax provided, please contact us.

The assumptions for the following example are:

The data file was created as described in "Reading A Multi-Level Data File Into SPSS";
An aggregated flat file was created as described in "Creating An Incident-Level Aggregated Flat File";
The individual data segments were saved in separate files as described in "Preparing Individual File Segments For Detailed Analysis"; and
The victim data segment was retrieved, new variables created, and a new file named and saved as shown in "Intimate Partner Single Segment Analysis - Research Question 1".

Defining the Variables

This example will merge the victim segment modified in the single segment example with the original offense segment file. The intimate partner single segment file is needed because the created variable OVRRCD is necessary in answering this research question. From the offense segment file, the incident location will be obtained. Both files must be sorted on the same variables first. The offense segment file is sorted on these variables: originating agency identifier (ORI), incident number (INC_NUM), and offense (OFFENSE). The offense segment is then re-saved under the same name. The intimate partner file is retrieved and is sorted on ORI, INC_NUM, and most serious victim offense (MSVOFF).

GET FILE = 'Directory:\Path\Offense segment.sav'.
SORT CASES BY ori inc_num offense.
SAVE outfile = 'Directory:\Path\Offense segment.sav'.
GET FILE = 'Directory:\Path\Intimate partner victim segment.sav'.
SORT CASES BY ori inc_num msvoff.

To merge the two files, the sorted intimate partner victim segment file is matched against the sorted offense segment file. The offense variable (OFFENSE) from the offense segment file is RENAMEd most serious victim offense (MSVOFF) because it is one of the sort variables, and the file is re-sorted on ORI, INC_NUM, and MSVOFF. The EXECUTE command matches the files.

MATCH FILES /FILE=*
/TABLE='Directory:\Path\Offense segment.sav'
/RENAME offense=msvoff
/BY ori inc_num msvoff.
EXECUTE.

Using the resulting active file, a new intimate partner violent offense variable (IPVOFF1 through IPVOFF10) is created from each existing victim offense variable (VOFF1 through VOFF10). The violent offenses are RECODEd into the following categories: (1) murder, manslaughter, justifiable homicide; (2) rape and sexual assault offenses; (3) all other assaults and kidnaping/abduction; (4) robbery. Nonviolent offenses are grouped (9) and will be excluded from this analysis. This RECODE also reorders offense seriousness. The reordering is necessary because according to the FBI's hierarchical offense structure, certain property offenses are classified as more serious than some violent offenses, such as simple assault and intimidation.

DO REPEAT voff=voff1 to voff10
/ipvoff=ipvoff1 to ipvoff10.
RECODE voff (90, 198, 199 = 1)
(110, 180, 183, 181, 182 = 2)
(120 = 3)
(130, 171, 172, 190 = 4)
(else = 9)into ipvoff.
END REPEAT.

Next, a COMPUTE creates a new intimate partner most serious violent offense variable (IPMSVOFF). This ensures that each victim is counted only once in the analysis. IPMSVOFF is COMPUTEd from the new variable IPVOFF. Each intimate partner victim offense (IPVOFF1 through IPVOFF10) is evaluated and the most serious offense is selected based upon the reordering accomplished in the above RECODE. Rape and sexual assault offenses include: forcible rape, forcible sodomy, rape of a male, sexual assault with an object, and forcible fondling. All assaults, kidnaping/abduction includes: aggravated assault, simple assault, intimidation, and kidnaping/abduction.

The VARIABLE LABEL is assigned to IPMSVOFF (intimate partner most serious violent offense) and the VALUE LABELS are assigned for the offense categories. The other, nonviolent offense category is defined as MISSING.

COMPUTE ipmsvoff = minl1(ipvoff1 to ipvoff10).
VARIABLE LABELS ipmsvoff 'Intimate partner most serious violent offense'.
VALUE LABELS ipmsvoff ipvoff1 to ipvoff10
1 'Murder, manslaughter, justifiable homicide'
2 'Rape and sexual assault offenses'
3 'Robbery'
4 'All assaults, kidnaping/abduction'
9 'Other nonviolent offense'.
MISSING VALUES ipmsvoff (9).

In the first intimate partner example, the variable IP_OVR was created to further define the intimate partner offender-victim relationships. The file saved in the single segment example contains the variable OVRRCD that was created to identify intimate partner relationships as a relationship category. OVRRCD distinguished intimate partner relationships from other categories of relationships and it is relied upon here to create the new variable IP_OVR. IP_OVR allows a separate examination of the various intimate partner relationships: boyfriend/girlfriend, common-law spouse, homosexual relationship, spouse, and ex-spouse.

COMPUTE ip_ovr = ' '.
IF (ovrrcd1 = 1) ip_ovr = ovr1
IF (ip_ovr = ' ' and ovrrcd2 = 1) ip_ovr = ovr2.
IF (ip_ovr = ' ' and ovrrcd3 = 1) ip_ovr = ovr3.
IF (ip_ovr = ' ' and ovrrcd4 = 1) ip_ovr = ovr4.
IF (ip_ovr = ' ' and ovrrcd5 = 1) ip_ovr = ovr5.
IF (ip_ovr = ' ' and ovrrcd6 = 1) ip_ovr = ovr6.
IF (ip_ovr = ' ' and ovrrcd7 = 1) ip_ovr = ovr7.
IF (ip_ovr = ' ' and ovrrcd8 = 1) ip_ovr = ovr8.
IF (ip_ovr = ' ' and ovrrcd9 = 1) ip_ovr = ovr9.
IF (ip_ovr = ' ' and ovrrcd10 = 1) ip_ovr = ovr10.
VARIABLE LABELS ip_ovr 'Offender-victim relationship for intimate partners'.
VALUE LABELS ip_ovr
'BG' 'Boyfriend/girlfriend'
'CS' 'Common-law spouse'
'HR' 'Homosexual Relationship'
'SE' 'Spouse'
'XS' 'Ex-spouse'.

The first RECODE below converts the alphanumeric offense location variable (OFF_LOC) into a numeric incident location variable (INC_LOC). This recoding simplifies the grouping of location types. The incident location variable is RECODEd into four categories: residential (1), non-residential (2), outdoors (3), and other/unknown (4). Nonresidential includes all public or private facilities other than residences. Outdoors includes field/woods, highway/road/alley, lake/waterway, and construction site. This creates the grouped incident location variable called LOC_GRP. The VARIABLE LABEL is then assigned to the new variable IP_OVR and the variable's VALUE LABELS are assigned.

RECODE off_loc (convert) into inc_loc.
RECODE inc_loc (20=1)
(6, 10, 13, 16 = 3)
(25, sysmis = 4)
(else = 2)into loc_grp.
VARIABLE LABELS loc_grp 'Incident location groups'.
VALUE LABELS loc_grp
1 'Residence/home'
2 'Non-residential'
3 'Outdoors'
4 'Other/unknown/missing'.

Producing the Output

The table generated shows for all victims of an intimate partner offender-victim relationship the percentage of the most serious violent offense reported at each incident location group.

TEMPORARY.
VARIABLE LABELS ip_ovr " ipmsvoff " loc_grp ".
SAVE OUTFILE = 'Directory:\Path\Intimate Partner Victim Offense.sav'.
TABLES
/FORMAT BLANK MISSING ('.')
/GBASE=CASES
/TABLE=ip_ovr>(STATISTICS)>ipmsvoff>(STATISTICS) BY loc_grp
/STATISTICS
count( loc_grp( F5.0 ) ")
cpct( loc_grp( PCT5.1 ) ":ip_ovr ipmsvoff ) /TITLE 'Intimate Partner'+
' Relationships Most Serious Violent Offense by Location of Incident'.

The total number of incidents evaluated for this example is 167,158. The total number of valid cases for this analysis is 166,668 after excluding missing data on intimate partner most serious violent offense, intimate partner offender-victim relationship, and offense location variables.

A majority of the most serious violent offenses committed against intimate partners in a reported incident occurred in a residence or home. With the exception of homosexual relationship, this is true for all categories of intimate partner relationships and all categories of most serious violent offense.

For intimate partner relationships reported as homosexual, 1,005 of the murders were committed in a residence. However, only 3 such incidents were reported. Non-sexual assaults were most likely to occur in a residence (81%) whereas rape and other sexual assaults were more likely to occur in a non-residential facility (48%) than a residence (29%). Only 1 intimate partner homosexual relationship robbery was reported and this occurred in a non-residential facility.

For boyfriend/girlfriend relationships, 72% of the murders, 80% of the sexual assaults, 56% of the robberies, and 78% of the other assaults occurred in a home or residence. For robberies in the relationships, the second most likely location was outdoors at 24%. For common-law spouses, 93% of the murders, 88% of the sexual assaults, 81% of the robberies, and 84% of the other assaults occurred in a home or residence.

For spouses, 78% of the murders, 90% of the sexual assaults, 52% of the robberies, and 87% of the other assaults occurred in a home or residence. For robberies in these relationships, the second most frequently reported location was a non-residential facility at 30%. For ex-spouses, 93% of the murders, 82% of the sexual assaults, 54% of the robberies, and 77% of the other assaults occurred in a home or residence. As with spousal relationships, the second most frequently reported location for robberies by ex-spouses was a non-residential facility (31%).

Table 1.