177682 Personal victimization among U.S. immigrants by employment occupation

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Krista K. Wheeler, MS , Center for Injury Research and Policy, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH
Lorann Stallones, MPH, PhD , Colorado Injury Control Research Center, Psychology Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
Kelly Kelleher, MD , Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice, Columbus Children's Research Institute, Columbus, OH
Huiyun Xiang, MD, MPH, PhD , Center for Injury Research and Policy, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH
We compared the annual incidence of nonfatal personal victimization between immigrant and US-born adults by their employment industry and occupation and assessed the association between disability, tobacco use, alcohol drinking, substance use, and personal victimization.

Data from the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) were used. Personal victimization was measured by means of a single question that asked how often in the past year a respondent was personally the victim of a crime or attempted crime “such as if a stranger or someone you knew beat you up, mugged you or attacked you, hit you with something, took something from you by force or threat of force, or forced you to have sex with them,” and participants are told “do not count robberies that occurred when you were not present.”

A total of 7,174 immigrant and 34,768 US-born adults provided valid data. Overall, immigrants and US-born had a comparable incidence of victimization. The victimization rate was 4.08% (95%CI =3.76, 4.43) for US-born and 3.84% (95%CI =3.18, 4.63) for immigrants. Unmarried immigrants had lower rates of victimization than the unmarried US-born (4.26% vs. 5.87%, p<.05). Immigrant residents of central city areas had statistically lower rates of victimization than US born central city residents (4.38% vs. 5.36%, p<0.05). US-born adults who were permanently disabled, current tobacco users, current alcohol drinker, and current drug user were much more likely to become crime victims compared with immigrants and US-born who did not have those conditions. Immigrants aged 70 years or older had a significantly higher incidence of personal victimization than their US-born counterparts. Immigrant victimization incidence among those employed in farming, forestry, and fishing was significantly higher than that among the US-born workers in similar employment (p<0.10).

Our results suggest that immigrant adults in the U.S. had a similar incidence rate of crime victimization than US-born adults. However, those immigrant workers employed in farming, forestry, and fishing had a significantly higher risk of becoming a crime victim than the US-born counterparts.

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe national estimates of personal victimization incidence among immigrants and U.S.-born adults. 2. Assess differences in personal victimization among foreign-born and U.S.-born by employment industry and occupation, disability status, substance use, and other sociodemographics.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I wrote the manuscript using analysis produced by H. Xiang.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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