Student Victimisation
Key Crime Reduction Questions
Set out below are some important principles for good crime reduction activity and a few key questions that you could ask yourselves and your crime reduction partners to test whether they are being applied. Although intended primarily for the police and Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships, they are important factors for student unions and universities to consider when formulating their crime reduction initiatives.
Problem-Oriented or Intelligence-Led Approach
There is a considerable body of knowledge about what can be done to tackle crime. Much of this is included or referenced in this website. However, the best type of intervention to tackle any particular local crime problems will vary according to the nature and cause of the problem and the context of the local area.
Taking a problem-oriented or intelligence-led approach - i.e. basing crime reduction activity on an analysis of the scope, nature and cause of the problem - is crucial. If this has been done properly, the mechanism by which the intervention will work (not just in theory but in practice in the local setting) should be evident. Will it:
Increase perceived effort or risk to the offender?
Reduce the anticipated reward?
Remove excuses for offending?
How are crime hot spots identified? Where are they in your area?
Is crime and other data being analysed to determine the nature and cause of the problem? Can data on crime against students be extracted?
How do you find out about good practice? When did you last look at the Crime Reduction website?
What are you doing and how will it impact on the local problem and its causes?
You can find out more about problem-solving approaches like SARA and the 5Is in the on-line learning area of this website.
Students can be a valuable resource in helping to identify and analyse crime problems; the information will also be useful for university departments who need data for their own research.
Evaluating the effectiveness will help to determine what is or is not working.
What has worked best? And what has not worked? Why?
Ensuring Delivery
The right approach for the local problem will only be effective if it is properly implemented. Someone with sufficient capacity to deliver the intervention and someone who will actively oversee delivery are essential.
Who is accountable for delivery and who is actually making this happen?
Is this their only job and, if not, do they have the capacity to do both effectively?
What are the risks to delivery - i.e. what could happen that would prevent effective delivery and how are the likelihood of these happening and their potential impacts being managed?
Repeat Victimisation
Evidence shows that people or places that have been the victims of certain types of crime (including burglary), and those in the close vicinity, are at higher risk of being victimised again; that this can happen very quickly; and that the risk increases with the number of times previously victimised.
There is also evidence that repeat offences are often carried out by the same, prolific and hardened offender. So focusing effort on victims - whether it be to try to prevent repeats or to help identify and gain evidence on the perpetrator - can play a significant part in crime reduction plans.
What is your Repeat Victimisation strategy and how are you implementing it?
Effective implementation of a repeat victimisation strategy can be hindered (and the level of repeat victimisation under-estimated) by difficulties in identifying repeats, often because the name of the person or details of the place are inaccurately or inconsistently recorded.
This problem is exacerbated in the case of students, as they tend to move more frequently. This could be easily overcome if, for example, victims are routinely asked whether a similar or linked crime has happened to them (or one of their close neighbours) before.
How are repeats identified?
Long-term, Partnership Approach
To tackle crime most effectively and over a sustained period, a long-term, partnership approach is needed that addresses not just the symptoms of the problem, but the causes too.
What are you and your partners doing to help deliver crime reduction?
Do you / your partners have the necessary knowledge (about the crime problem, what might work to tackle it and what is expected of them), commitment and capacity? If not, what can be done to overcome this?
What levers are you using / can you use to encourage your partners to play their part?
Crackdowns - such as short periods of intense police activity - can have a quick impact on crime. But if these cannot be sustained, crime levels are likely to rise again. For those undertaking such operations you might ask:
What is being done to consolidate the effects?
Similarly, activities such as target hardening - e.g. fitting better security to homes - can reduce crime. But it is likely to have more of a sustained impact on opportunists rather than hardened criminals whose lifestyle is built around, or relies on, crime.
What is being done to tackle long-term offenders and the reasons why they offend?
Communications Strategy
An effective communications strategy can play a significant part in the success of local initiatives. Going back to #1 above, well thought out publicity can help for example, to increase offenders' perceptions of risk and effort or reduce the anticipated rewards. It also has a crucial role to play in reducing fear of crime and in building community (and partnership) support and re-assurance.
How is publicity being used to maximise the impact of your actions?
How are victims kept informed of the outcome of cases?
How are your Crime and Disorder Reduction partners kept informed and what part do they play in developing and delivering publicity?
Last update: Last update: 03/12/03