What the 2016 National Crime Victimization Survey tells us about experiencing crime and the ability to learn.
The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is an ongoing survey that has collected data since 1973. The goal of the survey series is to collect information on crimes from the victims themselves. The survey asks respondents a large number of questions, but these vizualizations focus on the question: "Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, do you have serious difficulty: Concentrating, remembering, or making decisions?"
Being a victim of a crime appears to be associated with an increase in self-reported learning difficulty. Slicing the data by gender and race doesn't reveal any major difference from the overall trend.
Overall, nearly 9% of respondents who had been victims of crime reported difficulty learning compared to only 4% of respondents who had not been victims of crime.
Reporting being a victim of forced sexual contact is associated with a higher percent of people reporting difficulty learning relative to being a victim of any type of crime. This is especially true for men relative to women.
Over 15% of respondents who were victims of forced sexual contact reported difficulty learning. This is almost double the percentage for crimes generally. The association is even more prominent for men relative to women; 30% of men reported difficulty learning compared to 11% of women.
It is tempting to infer from this analysis that being a victim of crime, especially forced sexual conduct, causes difficulty learning. However, this analysis does not explore causality. When examining the data presented above, it is only fair to say that there is a correlation between experiencing crime and difficulty learning.
Just as experiencing crime could explain difficulty learning, difficulty learning could be driving experiencing crime. Those with learning disabilities may be more susceptible to being victims of crime, especially personal crimes involving forced sexual contact. More rigorous analysis is needed to determine causality. Either way, we should be concerned about this correlation.