Nonlinear relationship between income, age and criminal victimization in Brazil

Abstract

This study was mainly intended to investigate the effects of the income and age of individuals on their risk of becoming victims of physical assault, theft, robbery and attempted theft or robbery. Specifically, we were looking for evidence for a nonlinear relationship between these variables and victimization risk. Data from a national victimization survey were used to estimate victimization probability models. We found that, except for robbery and physical assault, the relationship between personal income and victimization risk has an inverted-U shape. We also found an inverted U-shape relationship between the age of individuals and victimization risk for the four types of crimes analyzed.

Keywords

• Victimization
• Crime
• Income
• Age
• Violence