DOI: 10.3886/icpsr38095.v1
title: Situational Factors and the Victim-Offender Overlap, Pennsylvania, 2013-2014
title: Version 1

description: This study examines explanations for the victim-offender overlap using data obtained from male prison inmates and a community sample. It employs two different designs, both of which are based on situational analyses of incidents. First, respondents are asked about their frequency of victimization and offending, as well as other behaviors. Second, respondents are asked about a violent and non-violent conflict in which they were recently involved.
description: The purpose of this study is to examine explanations of the victim-offender overlap using data obtained from male prison inmates and a community sample.
description: Recruitment flyers were posted throughout the facility approximately two weeks prior to data collection, and prison staff also shared information about the project with inmates to bolster recruitment efforts. The survey was administered by the Survey Research Center (SRC) staff in classroom settings to small groups of inmates. Inmates completed the survey alone on laptops using a computer-assisted personal interviewing program (CAPI). When inmates arrived, an SRC staff member read them a script that described the purpose of the study, and discussed consent, anonymity, confidentiality, and the study's approval by university institutional review boards. We guaranteed anonymity by not using any identifying information on the survey and by giving the inmates privacy, in most cases by seating them at desks separated by partitions. No prison guards were in the room, but were adjacent to it either in the hallway or in a nearby room. The respondents were given a copy of the consent form that included the contact information of the project investigators and institutional review boards. To generate the community sample, inmates were asked to provide on the recruitment flyer the names, age, and contact information for up to three male friends or family members in the community who have not been arrested who might be willing to complete the same survey for a $45 payment. One week after the notification letters were mailed, the SRC began calling community contacts. The SRC made up to twenty attempts to call the contacts. Once contacts agreed to participate, the SRC informed them that they could complete the survey via the telephone or internet; 66% chose the telephone.
description: The study includes variables about the frequency of respondents' verbal conflicts and their violent victimizations. There are also self-reported measures of respondents' self-control, alcohol use, and honor-based attitudes.
description: Not applicable.
description: Response Rates: The response rates for the community sample was 44 percent.
description: Presence of Common Scales: None.
description: Inmate sample was a purposive sample since individuals were selected because they share a particular characteristic - incarceration. The community sample was selected through inmate referrals. The total sample of 723 participants includes 503 male inmates from the Pennsylvania state prison system and 220 inmate personal male contacts in the community who had never been arrested.
description: Datasets: DS1: Situational Factors and the Victim-Offender Overlap, Pennsylvania, 2013-2014
description: Male inmates from the Pennsylvania state prison system and inmate personal male contacts in the community who had never been arrested. Smallest Geographic Unit: None
description: computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI); telephone interview; web-based survey