Do you want to avoid the hassle of traveling with your printed poster? IAPHS2026 is pleased to make poster printing available to you through our supplier PosterSessionOnline. Your poster will be professionally reviewed, printed and shipped directly to Portland and you will be able to pick it up from the Poster desk. Click here to learn more.
Primary Submission Category: Health equity
The Social Distribution of Violence Victimization: Sexual and Gender Identity, Race and Ethnicity, and Household Poverty
Authors: Katrina Kennedy, Harry Barbee, Cassandra Crifasi, Amrita Rao, Laura Samuel, Danielle German,
Presenting Author: Katrina Kennedy*
Interpersonal violence in the U.S. is unequally distributed in ways that reflect structural systems of inequality. Prior research documents disparities by socioeconomic position, race and ethnicity, and sexual and gender identity, but most quantitative studies treat these dimensions as independent or additive. Guided by intersectionality and structural vulnerability frameworks, this study examines how poverty level, race and ethnicity, and sexual and gender diverse (SGD) identity jointly structure violence vulnerability. We analyzed 2017-2023 U.S. National Crime Victimization Survey data. We calculated victimization rates and conducted an intersectional multi-level analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy (I-MAIHDA), with individuals nested within 384 strata defined by Federal Poverty Level (FPL), SGD status, race and ethnicity, age, and education. Models estimated between-stratum variance and the proportion explained by additive vs. intersection-specific effects. Individuals living below the FPL experienced victimization rates 2.5x those of individuals living at or above 400% of the FPL. SGD individuals experienced nearly 5x the rate of non-SGD individuals. Disparities by race and ethnicity emerged for serious violent crime and within poverty strata. In I-MAIHDA models, additive effects explained 96% of between-stratum variance, while 4% reflected intersection-specific effects. Predicted stratum-level victimization prevalence ranged from 0.17-9.66%. The highest-vulnerability strata were younger SGD individuals living below the FPL. Violence vulnerability is structured by overlapping systems inequality. Intersection-specific effects identify populations at the highest risk that may be obscured in unidimensional analyses. Violence prevention efforts must address the ways that systems of inequality shape differential exposure to harm and access to protection, addressing economic inequality and other upstream determinants.