Standardizing the Display of IBR Data: Relationship Variables

The first table provides a simple way of visualizing the relationship of victims to offenders in simple assault offenses.

Example 1.  Relationship of Victim to Offender in Simple Assaults
Produced by the Iowa Department of Public Safety in 1999 Iowa Uniform Crime Report, 2000.

Victims are more likely to know their offenders in simple assault incidents; acquaintances are most often assaulted.

To produce this table, relationship categories were created.  Only victims of simple assaults were selected, and a pie chart was created.  

Download SPSS syntax for Example 1.
Download SPSS Table Template.
Note: Please check that the variable names used in this syntax match the variable names in your data file.  If you need assistance, contact JRSA.

The next table looks at the relationship between victims and offenders for violent offenses occurring in schools. 

Example 2.  School Violence Victims by Victim/Offender Relationship
Produced by the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, Office of Justice Programs in School Violence in South Carolina 1996 - 1998: An Incident-Based Descriptive Analysis, 2000.

As this table shows, victims were likely to have known, but not be related to, the offender.

To create this table, relationship categories were created.  Known-to-victim relationships consist of acquaintances, friends, neighbors, babysittees, children of boy/girlfriends, and persons otherwise know to the victim.

Download SPSS syntax for Example 2.
Note: Please check that the variable names used in this syntax match the variable names in your data file.  If you need assistance, contact JRSA.

The third example looks at the victims of forcible rape.

Example 3.  Forcible Rape: Victim to Offender Relationship
Produced by the Delaware Statistical Analysis Center, in Domestic Violence in Delaware 1994, 1996.

The table shows 32% of the rapes in Delaware in 1994 can be attributed to domestic violence.  About 22.8% of the rape suspects were related to the victim.

This table was produced by creating relationship categories for victims.  Only forcible rape offenses are selected, and a bar graph is created.

Download SPSS syntax for Example 3.
Download SPSS Table Template.
Note: Please check that the variable names used in this syntax match the variable names in your data file.  If you need assistance, contact JRSA.

The final table looks at the relationship of offender to victim in robbery offenses.   The table also shows the age of victim and race of both victim and offender.

Example 4.  Relationship of offender to victim in personal robberies reported in 3 NIBRS states, by age of victim and race of offender and victim, 1991.
Produced by Brian A. Reaves in Using NIBRS Data to Analyze Violent Crime.   Produced by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1993.

As this table shows, almost a third of victims were unable to determine whether or not they knew the offender.  The victim knew the offender in 35% of intra-racial robberies involving blacks, a slightly higher percentage than for intra-racial robberies involving whites (27%).

In SPSS, two separate tables have to be created to produce the information provided above.  To create one table, this information will then have to be entered into this format.

Download SPSS syntax for Example 4.
Note: Please check that the variable names used in this syntax match the variable names in your data file.  If you need assistance, contact JRSA.