The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) keeps track of the victim’s marital status. There are several possible values for it:
- Never married
- Married
- Widowed
- Divorced
- Separated
These are mostly self-explanatory. However, an essential point is that “Never married” does not mean single. Another critical item is that this value has no relationship to the offender. It simply is the victim’s marital status. As an example, a victim’s marital status of married doesn’t mean the offender was their spouse.
“Never Married” has a few of correlations:
- Violent crime offenders are often young males. They often assault young males or young females.
- Youth correlates with not being married.
- Youth correlates with the willingness to take risks.
One item that the NCVS does not record is whether the victim had a child (or children) under the age of 18 when the crime was committed. If the victim were a woman, it would also help to know if she was pregnant. When combined with the marital status of “Never Married,” this data would allow us to understand single-parent crime victims and their circumstances. Why is that important?
Single parenthood has dramatically increased since the 1960s. Many single women parents have dropped out of high school or college. These women are often in financial difficulties, and there are various government programs to help them. If the woman does meet a person they want to marry, these programs may end when the marriage is finalized. A couple will earn less than they did as a girlfriend and boyfriend. Realizing this situation, a couple may choose not to get married for financial reasons.
Sadly, couples who don’t need government help have picked up on this situation. Some unmarried couples raising children exploit government benefits by staying single. For instance, a woman may rent a place from her boyfriend’s parents or friends, file as a single mother, take advantage of all the government programs, and get to live with her boyfriend. The boyfriend files as single and says he lives with his parents. Their resources are distributed among family members to hide income and perpetuate government benefits. Unless government workers actually visit homes and engage in surveillance of the beneficiaries, this fraud will go undetected. Not even in anonymous surveys will these people admit to what they are doing. In short, we can say:
- There can be relationship complexity for Never Married couples.
- There can be relationship complexity for Never Married women with a child or children.
Considering these five things, perhaps it does make sense that “Never Married” is the most common marital status among violent crime victims. However, one thing that bothers me is that if you ask people about a domestic violence situation, many people will answer that the victim’s marital status will be “Married.”
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should run out and get married to prevent being a victim of violent crime. However, what it does mean is that if you are ready to get married and your instincts tell you that you are with the right person, you shouldn’t hesitate because you are worried about violent crime (e.g., domestic violence). Any given domestic situation will likely be more complex without the legal protections of marriage. After all, in the old days, couples would consider murdering their spouse before considering divorce! That doesn’t help much around violent crime, but it speaks to the commitment many people felt about marriage!
Obviously, things change. You may find your marriage is wrong and need to get out of it. What do the violent crime statistics say about divorce? Well, another shocker is that violent crime from divorced couples is even lower than from married couples. Here are the actual statistics from 1993 to 2021 from the NCVS (95 percent confidence intervals are in parenthesis):
- Aggravated Assault, Victim Not Injured (men primarily the victim sex, public places common, offenders are more often strangers. i.e., more likely to be things like road rage)
- Never Married: 50.62% (48.50-52.74)
- Married: 29.86% (27.59-32.13)
- Divorced: 12.43% (11.23-13.63)
- Aggravated Assault, Victim Injured (men/women about equal for victim sex, the location of a home is common, offender more likely to be someone the victim knows. i.e., more likely to be domestic violence)
- Never Married: 57.17% (54.02-60.33)
- Married: 18.47% (15.89-21.06)
- Divorced: 13.19% (11.05-15.34)
Perhaps it is time to think about our perceptions of domestic violence and the victim’s marital status. They may be leading us away from reality.