Table US-1: Effectiveness of victim resistance methods

Effectiveness of victim resistance methods,
injury rates in percent grouped by crime

Method of Defense Employed by Victim Against Offender	Confrontational Robbery			Assault			Burglary
	Injury (pre)	Injury (post)	Loss	Injury (pre)	Injury (post)	Loss	Injury (post)	Loss
Shoot	8.5	0.0	8.5	48.9	5.9	26.5	0.0	4.2
Threaten with a gun	13.5	9.0	16.3	24.9	3.0	10.0	2.6	16.6
Any defense w/ firearm	12.7	7.7	15.2	27.9	3.6	9.5	2.2	15.0
Other weapon	41.9	1.6	34.4	60.7	7.8	30.4	7.3	6.3
Fists	52.1	7.7	46.9	82.7	8.6	64.3	5.4	13.5
Threaten w/ other weapon	15.9	0.0	23.3	30.6	2.8	15.8	0.0	0.0
Threaten without weapon	52.1	7.7	46.9	82.7	8.6	64.3	5.4	13.5
Defended self/property	51.4	9.8	52.1	83.3	10.0	61.9	12.8	12.0
Chased/tried to catch offender	34.4	9.6	60.3	58.2	9.0	10.2	0.0	26.7
Yelled at offender, turned on lights	40.2	10.6	49.8	63.3	10.8	17.0	4.4	9.7
Pretended to cooperate w/ offender	12.6	6.5	81.5	37.6	14.7	38.1	15.5	37.9
Argued/reasoned with attacker	31.0	14.1	52.8	56.9	15.2	39.3	11.7	11.8
(tried to) Run/drive away	32.3	4.9	41.5	38.4	5.4	36.2	29.3	14.9
Called police/guard	23.6	3.4	56.0	48.5	4.6	12.9	2.8	14.3
Try to attract attention	45.6	14.0	41.1	70.4	6.7	39.5	21.2	16.1
Screamed from fear/pain	69.3	22.0	68.6	94.1	12.6	73.6	21.6	19.4
Other methods of self-protection	25.2	8.4	58.8	42.4	6.8	8.2	2.3	10.5
All resistances (avg.)	34.0	7.2	52.8	58.1	7.8	20.4	4.1	12.5
None at all	23.6	n/a	83.6	55.2	n/a	6.6	n/a	52.8
All incidents	30.2	4.5	69.9	57.4	5.9	14.2	2.2	30.5

About

Statistics based upon data gathered from the US Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey (1992-1998) and compiled by criminologist Gary Kleck. Please insert newer data if you have it.

Number Crunching

This page is part of Gunsopedia's number crunching project and as such should be reviewed periodically to make sure that the information contained here is up to date. Nothing should be added to this page without source information.