Response to criminal victimization by older americans

Recent research suggests that “being older” is a significant correlate of fear of crime and the probability of victimization. This study questions whether “age” is indeed a pivotal variable with regard to the victim's response to being victimized. For a sample of 44,593 personal contact criminal incidents, the relative importance of the victim's age vis-à-vis other sociodemographic variables, incident variables, and contextual variables for victims' resistance and reporting to the police is examined. The findings suggest that none of the variables is strongly related to victims' self-protective action or police reporting. Victims' age is no exception to this general observation.