Personality and victimization in the Americas

Victimization is associated with traumatic harm, bringing inherent importance to efforts to understand why victimization occurs. Past research has shown that economic and demographic factors affect the probability that individuals will experience bribery, crime, and discrimination. We build on this foundation by arguing that a fuller account of victimization must include the impact of differences in personality. To test our hypotheses, we utilize survey data from 22 nations in the Americas. Results show that openness and extraversion increase the probability of victimization and agreeableness decreases it.