title: Crime and subjective well-being in the countries of the former Soviet Union.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Criminal victimisation and subjective well-being have both been linked to health outcomes, although as yet, comparatively little is known about the relationship between these two phenomena. In this study we used data from nine countries of the former Soviet Union (fSU) to examine the association between different types of crime and subjective well-being.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were obtained from 18,000 individuals aged 18 and above collected during the Health in Times of Transition (HITT) survey in 2010/11 in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Ukraine. Information was obtained on respondents' experience of crime (violence and theft) and self-reported affective (happiness) and cognitive (life satisfaction) well-being. Ordered probit and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analyses were undertaken to examine the associations between these variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In pooled country analyses, experiencing violence was associated with significantly lower happiness and life satisfaction. Theft victimisation was associated with significantly reduced life satisfaction but not happiness. Among the individual countries, there was a more pronounced association between violent victimisation and reduced happiness in Kazakhstan and Moldova.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The finding that criminal victimisation is linked to lower levels of subjective well-being highlights the importance of reducing crime in the fSU, and also of having effective support services in place for victims of crime to reduce its detrimental effects on health and well-being.
authors.affiliation: The Centre for Health and Social Change, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK. andrew.stickley@sh.se.|The Stockholm Centre for Health and Social Change (SCOHOST), Södertörn University, 141 89, Huddinge, Sweden. andrew.stickley@sh.se.|Department of Human Ecology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. andrew.stickley@sh.se.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stickley
authors.affiliation: Research and Development Unit, Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, Fundació Sant Joan de Déu, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain. koyanagiai@yahoo.com.|Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, CIBERSAM, Spain. koyanagiai@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Ai
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Koyanagi
authors.affiliation: The Centre for Health and Social Change, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK. bayard.roberts@lshtm.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Bayard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.affiliation: Health Economics Group, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. Y.Goryakin@uea.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Yevgeniy
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Goryakin
authors.affiliation: The Centre for Health and Social Change, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK. martin.mckee@lshtm.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McKee
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001208:Asia; D003415:Crime; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D059026:Diagnostic Self Evaluation; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013800:Theft / Q000523:psychology*; D014586:USSR; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult