The Impact of Gender and Race upon Armed Victim Resistance: Some Findings from the National Crime Survey

A sample of NCS personal victimization incidents was analyzed in order to identify the correlates of victims' armed resistance to attack.In order to assess whether the correlates of victims' use of a gun were different from those of victims' self-protective use of another weapon, two dependent variables were employed: (1) use of a gun, and (2) use of weapon other than a gun.A separate analysis of the correlates of self-defensive weapon use for males and females, whites and non-whites was conducted.The results of the logistic regression suggest that gender and presence of an offender's weapon were related to self-defensive weapon use.Additional significant predictors were distance from home and victim income for gun use only; number of recent moves, whether the attack took place in the dark or during daylight, and time of day that incident took place for other weapon use only.Furthermore, the predictors for whites and non-whites, females and males varied, suggesting the need for continued exploration of separate models for these specific subgroups.