Personality and victimization in the Americas
| Author | Jeffery J Mondak,Matthew Hayes,Damarys Canache,Matthew Cawvey |
| Published date | 01 January 2018 |
| Date | 01 January 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0269758017727345 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Personality and victimization
in the Americas
Matthew Cawvey
Oklahoma State University, USA
Matthew Hayes
Rice University, USA
Damarys Canache
University of Illinois, USA
Jeffery J Mondak
University of Illinois, USA
Abstract
Victimization is associated with traumatic harm, bringing inherent importance to efforts to
understand why victimization occurs. Past research has shown that economic and demographic
factors affect the probability that individuals will experience bribery, crime, and discrimination. We
build on this foundation by arguing that a fuller account of victimization must include the impact of
differences in personality. To test our hypotheses, we utilize survey data from 22 nations in the
Americas. Results show that openness and extraversion increase the probability of victimization
and agreeableness decreases it.
Keywords
Personality, Big Five, bribery, crime, discrimination
Individuals experience negative events in all contexts: in their home environment, neighborhood,
and workplace. Some undesirable circumstances result from accident or illness, whereas other
negative experiences involve a perpetrator engaging in purposive behavior against a victim.
Victimization harms not only individuals, but also societies: bribery and other forms of corruption
Corresponding author:
Jeffery J Mondak, Department of Political Science, University of Illinois, 420 David Kinley Hall, 1407 W. Gregory Drive,
Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
Email: jmondak@illinois.edu
International Review of Victimology
2018, Vol. 24(1) 123–139
ªThe Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/0269758017727345
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hamper economic growth (Mauro, 1995); crime yields authoritarian attitudes about public policy
(Bateson, 2012); and discrimination can produce group differences in such outcomes as education
(Flores and Telles, 2012) and income (Bailey et al., 2013). The severity of these consequences
directs attention to the antecedents of victimization. In this article, our focus is the possible role of
variation in the personality traits of potential victims. In question is whether differences in person-
ality are predictive of the risk of victimization.
We develop an expansive strategy in an effort to shed new light on the psychological ante-
cedents of victimization. First, we investigate the impact of multiple personality traits, developing
hypotheses about four of the Big Five personality trait dimensions: openness to experience, con-
scientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness. Second, to test the scope of our hypotheses in a
broad manner, we investigate victimization in three domains: bribery, crime, and discrimination.
Third, we test our thesis using survey data drawn from over 30,000 respondents taking part in
representative national surveys conducted in 22 nations in the Americas.
The remainder of this investigation begins with a discussion of extant research on the causes of
victimization, which is followed by an explanation of our personality hypotheses. Finally, after an
overview of data and measures, we present and discuss statistical results.
Factors influencing victimization
Research regarding the antecedents of victimization may explore factors related to one or more of a
wide number of types of victimization, and may consider predictors pertaining to the victim, the
perpetrator, and/or the context. Although our hope in the present study is to generate findings that
may be relevant to many forms of victimization, our empirical focus is on three specific types of
incidents: bribery, crime, and discrimination. More critically, the factor we examine is the psy-
chological dispositions of potential victims. Therefore, to situate our study, we must consider past
research on how the characteristics of potential victims relate to patterns of bribery, crime, and
discrimination victimization. This two-part focus—on three specific forms of victimization, and on
the psychological traits of potential victims—is not intended to suggest that these are more critical
than other types of victimization or other classes of predictors. To the contrary, it is our hope that
the present inquiry will contribute to multifaceted accounts of the antecedents of victimization.
Research on the factors influencing victimization addresses those types of victimization con-
sidered here—bribery (e.g. Gingerich, 2009; Seligson, 2006), crime (e.g. Miethe et al., 1987), and
discrimination (e.g. Hopkins, 1980)—but also considers many other forms of victimization, such
as bullying, elder abuse, and harassment. The present study links to these latter forms of victimiza-
tion only by implication. Likewise , the current effort may yield implicati ons for research on
characteristics of victimizers and on contextual predictors of victimization, but our direct focus
is on attributes of potential victims. Below, we briefly discuss prior research on victim character-
istics, and then we outline how and why attention to personality traits may broaden our under-
standing of the antecedents of victimization.
Victim attributes
With respect to the characteristics of potential victims, the literature has gravitated toward three
general factors to explain the occurrence or perception of victimization. The first is contact with
potential perpetrators. Numerous studies have found that people are more likely to become victims
the more they are exposed to others (e.g. Kessler et al., 1999; Orces, 2009b). Many forms of
124 International Review of Victimology 24(1)
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