The impact on repeat victims

The impact of repeat victimisation on victims has only recently been addressed in the research. Repeat victims experience many different crimes, sometimes daily and it is recognised that much of the crime they experience is not reported to the police.

(See Shaw M.K. (1997) Fear of Crime in Greater Manchester: 'The relative importance of repeat victimisation & gender'. Manchester University: Department of Geography unpublished PhD thesis.)

Shaw M. (2000) The bereavement process & repeated crime victimisation' in Farrell G. & Pease K. (Eds.) Repeat Victimisation. Willow Tree Press. New York.

Ditton J. et al (1999) 'Afraid or Angry? Re-Calibrating the fear of crime'. International Review of Victimology'

Farrell G. & Pease K (1997) 'Repeat Victim Support' British Journal of Social Work 27 (p.101-113)

The research on repeat victimisation in Scotland showed that victims do not get ‘used’ to crime, and suffer many emotional side-effects even when victimisation episodes appear individually trivial. It can be compared to a bereavement process where victims go through various stages after each incident and this applies to relatively trivial crimes as well as those viewed as more serious by society. The responses include:

• Anger towards perpetrators

• Feeling unsafe

• Social exclusion, where victims withdraw from social contact

• Poor health

• Lifestyle changes arising from fear: to protect themselves even where this causes inconvenience

The implications of this are important. The Scottish survey of repeat victimisation showed that many repeat victims have low expectations of what the police can do to help them and this may lead to a failure to report future crimes. The fact that apparently trivial events can have a seriously detrimental effect on victims means that particular attention needs to be given to victim care by all the relevant agencies. 

These findings are backed up by the 2001 British Crime Survey, which showed that victims perceive themselves to be at greater risk of another crime than people who have not been victims. In addition they are generally more worried about crime.