The Rasch model for victimization analysis: a proposal of an insecurity perception index

Abstract

This work focuses on the application of the Rasch Model for the Victimization Analysis. The aim of this paper is to propose a new Citizen Insecurity Perception Index referring to the Italian Country as well as to its Regions or Geographical areas. The Index is defined by means of the person location parameters estimated by a Rasch Model. This procedure is particularly suitable since the synthetic value of the latent variable “Insecurity Perception” is first evaluated at individual level; its estimated scores are then naturally aggregated to higher levels.