Effects of Victimization on Engagement and Expression

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

This project examines the effect of severe crime victimization on the mobilization of friends and family. Specifically, it investigates why some of these individuals mobilize and others do not and for those who do, why they mobilize in the way that they do. Prior research shows that victimization of a friend or family member affects public activity. In this project, interviews with such individuals are used to research how these events have affected their psychological, social, and public lives. Findings will be useful to social service agencies, decision makers, and others seeking to improve outcomes in this area. Hypotheses that the forms of victimization will affect responses, conditional on demographic characteristics, will be investigated by identifying 36 cases of victimization and interviewing 5 to 15 individuals per case. These interviews will be spread across three different categories of victimization in two locations with different cultures. The interviews will be analyzed to engage questions regarding why people participate in the movements they do, the social psychological precursors to and consequences of public engagement, and the relationship between public culture and public outcomes. In doing so, the project will lay intellectual groundwork for scholars interested in analyzing the import of victimization, including but extending beyond the victimization investigated here. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.