Analysing Patterns of Repeat Victimisation

It will be useful to analyse different aspects of repeat victimisation including:

• Prevalence (number of repeat victims)

• Concentration (number of offences per victim)

• Rate (number victimised once, twice, three times, etc.)

Hope (1994, 1995) shows how different measures highlight contrasting trends in an area of Hull and how an analysis of all three aspects of repeat victimisation was necessary to understand what was happening. Farrell and Buckley (1998) show how a domestic violence initiative increased the number of women calling the police (prevalence), but decreased the number of calls per caller (concentration), so that the total number of calls remained unchanged (Home Office 1998c: 8).  Undertaking analysis on a rolling year (i.e. within 12 months) will be more revealing than aggregations over a calendar or financial year (Home Office 1999).

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