Crime Victim / Offender Relationships Violent crime includes murder, rape and sexual assault, robbery, and assault. Statistics trends state that males are equally likely to be violently victimized by a stranger or nonstranger, and females are more likely to be victimized by a friend, an acquaintance, or an intimate. The following 2004 statistics relate to the victim / offender relationship: About seven in ten female rape or sexual assault victims stated the offender was an intimate, other relative, a friend, or an acquaintance. 62% of males and 45% of females stated the individual(s) who robbed them was a stranger. Intimates were identified by the victims of workplace violence as the perpetrator in about 1% of all workplace violent crime. About 40% of the victims of nonfatal violence in the workplace reported that they knew their offender. For murder victims, 43% were related to or acquainted with their assailants; 14% of victims were murdered by strangers, while 43% of victims had an unknown relationship to their murderer in 2002. Two thirds of murders of children under the age of 5 were committed by a parent or other family member. Female victims are more likely to be victimized by intimates than male victims. In 2004, of those offenders victimizing females, 21% were described as intimates and 34% as strangers. By contrast, of those offenders victimizing males, 4% were described as intimates and 50% as strangers. The rate of nonfatal intimate violence against females declined by nearly half between 1993 and 2001. Source: |