A statewide survey examining ACEs, (poly)Victimization, perceptions of mental health, and firearm information provision in the aftermath of the pandemic

ABSTRACT

Scholars continue to unpack the negative impact(s) the COVID-19 pandemic has on Americans’ lives. Those experiencing adverse experiences during childhood may have been disproportionately at greater risk of victimization during the pandemic. As mental health deteriorated and firearm violence increased in the early stages of the pandemic, the public may become more aware and receptive to seeking mental health counseling and restrictive firearm policies. Utilizing an original statewide survey distributed across the state of South Carolina, we first test whether those with high ACEs scores (as well as other mental/physical health factors) were more likely to experience criminal (poly)victimization during the pandemic. Next, we present findings from an experiment that randomly presented research information about positive effects of mental health and restrictive firearm policies on respondents’ willingness to seek mental health counseling and support of restrictive firearm policies. Findings indicate that those with high ACEs reported increased risk of victimization and poly-victimization. While the experimental treatments did not impact respondents’ willingness to seek mental health counseling or support for restrictive firearm polices, multiplicative analyses revealed that certain sub-groups of respondents were significantly impacted by information about restrictive firearm policies. Several policy implications and future avenues of scholarly exploration are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Crime
• COVID-19 pandemic
• adverse childhood experiences
• experiment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

Data is available on Harvard Dataverse at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/6GJDRE

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/0735648X.2024.2358928

Notes

1. Items asked: ‘Since the pandemic started (e.g., shutdowns), I have been a victim of the following crimes’ with Yes/No options for each crime listed above.

2. Items asked if respondents experienced any of the following in your childhood: 1) parents/guardians divorced or separated, 2) parents/guardians served time in jail/prison, 3) saw or heard parents/guardians/adults slap, hit, kick, and/or punch each other in the home, 4) I was a victim of violence or witnessed violence in your neighborhood, 5) lived with anyone who was mentally ill, suicidal, or severely depressed, 6) lived with anyone who had a problem with alcohol or drugs, 7) I was treated or judged unfairly because of my race/ethnicity or sexual orientation, 8)economic hardship (e.g., could not afford housing or food).

3. Mailers Haven makes multiple attempts per year to verify the accuracy of household addresses and identifies the head of household using various databases (e.g., United States Postal Service). Addresses that cannot be verified, unoccupied households, and households that place themselves on ‘no contact’ lists are excluded.

4. A priori test using G*power indicated a sample of 983 for statistical power (assuming a small effect [0.10] of two groups). Our sample far exceeds the suggested sample of 983.

5. Four cases were removed because they completed the survey under one minute which was not a realistic time to complete the survey and read the questions.

6. For the sensitivity analyses, we measured violent victimizations with the measures of violent crime, sexual aggression, gang violence, and gun violence. Non-violent victimizations were categorized as property crime, cybercrime, and drug crimes.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant (CDC-RFA-OT21-2103): National Initiative to Address COVID-19 Health Disparities Among Populations at High-Risk and Underserved, Including Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations and Rural Communities.

Notes on contributors

Lekendra Kidd

Lekendra Kidd, M.S. is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Criminology &Criminal Justice at the University of South Carolina.

Hunter M. Boehme

Hunter M. Boehme. is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice at the University of South Carolina.

Elizabeth Crouch

Elizabeth Crouch is an associate professor in the Department of Health Services Policy and Management at the University of South Carolina and Director of the Rural and Minority Health Research Center. Elizabeth has over 100 peer reviewed publications focused on children and children’s health. In 2023, Elizabeth received the Outstanding Rural Health Researcher of the Year award from the National Rural Health Association.

Emma Kennedy

Emma Kennedy is the Director of the Division of Injury and Substance Abuse Prevention at the South Carolina Department of Health & Environmental Control

Melissa S. Nolan

Melissa Nolan is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Arnold School of Public Health.