Examining the Influence of Federal Victims Services Funding on Crime in Montana

Gendered violent crime has been highlighted as a critical issue at county, tribal, and federal levels, prompting targeted responses through grant-funded victim services. In this project, I explore the research question: How does federal victims services funding impact violent crime rates in Montana counties? I hypothesize that counties that receive more federal funding will see a decrease in future violent crime rates. To conduct this research, I gathered data from a variety of state and federal sources to create a dataset with measures of victim services funding, violent crime rates, and demographic characteristics for each county in Montana. This includes funding and crime data from the Office of Violence Against Women, Montana Board of Crime Control, and the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System. I will utilize longitudinal regression analyses to examine the relationship between federal grant allocations and future crime rates at the county level.