The repeat victimisation pattern

Repeat victimisation is:

• Predictable – once victimised, a person or place is more likely to be victimized again than one that has not. Furthermore, the risk of re- victimisation increases the more a person or place has been victimised.

Action for Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships:

Prevention measures should be targeted at those who have been victims, preferably after the first victimization. In addition, special attention should be paid to those people or places which have already experienced several incidents, as they are most at risk of further victimization.

• Rapid – second and subsequent offences follows fairly rapidly after the ‘first’ but this heightened risk period declines swiftly over time.

Action for Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships

To be effective, crime prevention measures need to be put in place quickly. However, as risk eventually declines, expensive measures such as mobile alarms can be allocated on a temporary basis, and then reallocated as the risk diminishes.

• Highest in high crime areas – certain areas have high crime rates not because more people are victimised, but because there is more victimisation of the same people.

Action for Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships

Focusing on repeat victims automatically involves targeting high crime areas.

• The same offenders – more recent research has shown that the same offenders return to the same victims. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/cru/resfinds/crf44-00.asp

Action for Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships

Targeting prolific offenders can be achieved by detecting repeat crimes against the same target.

(see Pease K. (1998) Repeat Victimisation: Taking Stock. Crime Detection & Prevention Series Paper 90. Home Office. Full copy & summary available at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/prgpdfs/fcdps90.pdf)