Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

This briefing note has been produced as an intended guide for local police and crime reduction partnerships on national patterns of stranger and acquaintance violence. This will enable comparisons to be made in local experiences, and inform on future priority setting for analysis and crime reduction initiatives.

The majority of the statistical information contained within this paper is taken from the British Crime Survey 2000 (BCS). However more specific links are made between BCS results and implications for local crime reduction practice.

The note defines stranger and acquaintance violence as:

• Stranger violence – assaults and attempts to which the victim did not know the offenders

• Acquaintance violence – assaults and attempts in which the victim knew one or more of the offenders at least by sight (not involving partners, ex-partners, household members or other relatives).

Download the Briefing Note in full (file size 59 kb)