Women are closing the gender gap with men when it comes to the odds of being a victim of aggravated and simple assault, according to a study by Karen Heimer, professor of sociology at Iowa, and Janet Lauritsen of the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Heimer notes that the risk for aggravated and simple assault to both men and women has dropped substantially since the 1970s, but for unknown reasons, male rates of victimization have declined faster than female rates. The researcher presented their study at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Article by Gary W. Galluzzo in Arts & Sciences, Fall 2007