Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies

The intention of this paper is to go beyond the scattered research that has been done using public opinion surveys to compare victims to non-victims. Presently, there is a lack of surveys that allow this comparison, and include measurement of key social concepts (constructs) such as interpersonal trust, networking, membership, fear, well-being and institutional trust. For this paper, a survey instrument was specifically design to measure each concept using multiple items. The reliability of the concepts is tested using confirmatory factor analysis. Relations between concepts are shown using causal analysis assigning temporal precedence to the condition of being a victim (victimization experience).