Repeat Victimization Research Articles

The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention: a Short Presentation

The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsförebyggande rådet, BRÅ) is a centre for research and development work within the justice system and is to provide assistance to the agencies of the criminal justice system in improving their knowledge and developing their methods to combat and to prevent crime. In this article a summary of the operations of the Council – with a focus on the year 2004 – is presented. It is shown that a great number of evaluation projects have been conducted (e.g. of electronic monitoring of offenders). Another way in which the Council can contribute is working to develop various instruments that can be used to measure the effects of different parts of the criminal justice system. As an example, a routine measure of repeat victimization at the regional and local level for different crime types, is being developed. In order to maintain a national centre of expertise in the broad area of economic and organized crime, a special secretariat has been established. Its focus is directed at the area of prevention, ranging from strategies to methods. Finally, the Council has the responsibility to support local crime prevention work and mediation at the local level. The article also points out some challenges for the future.

Sins of Omission: The Jewish Community's Reaction to Domestic Violence (review)

Boulder: Westview Press, 2003. 238 pp. $26.00 Domestic violence remains a problem of staggering proportions. According to data from the National Violence Against Women Survey, approximately 1.5 million women are raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or date at least once annually; if repeat victimization is taken into account, this number increases to almost 4.8 million.(1) Victims of intimate parmer violence are not restricted to one racial, ethnic, or economic group or, as this important and thought-provoking book makes clear, to any one religious group. While data on victims of abuse in national studies do not include information about religious affiliation, Kaufman presents statistics suggesting that rates of abuse in the Jewish community are comparable to estimates in the general population (p. 46). This abuse, and the lack of response of the Jewish community to its presence, is the focus of Kaufman's book. Kaufman, an industrial and organizational psychologist by training, approaches the issue from an organizational perspective. She notes: In this book I looked at the structure and processes of one specific organization -- the Jewish community -- in order to analyze it as a living organizational system. I wanted to study how that system impacts its members by looking at how it responds to the scourge of spousal abuse; its acknowledgement of the problem, its method(s) of dealing with it, and the funds it allocates to education, victim treatment, and prevention. (p xvi) Toward this end, Kaufman conducted in-person interviews as well as archival research with Jewish lay leaders, rabbis, community professionals and victims of domestic violence primarily from three areas in the state of Massachusetts: the western and middle part of the state and the Greater Boston metropolitan region. She also spoke with persons representing key national Jewish organizations. Persons who participated in the study represented all denominations of Judaism. The result of her work is a comprehensive overview of the community's beliefs, interventions (or lack thereof), reactions, and misperceptions of the problem of spousal abuse. Kaufman carefully documents how denial about the existence of abuse, as well as the lack of knowledge or misinformation about the best way to intervene, prevents many rabbis from responding to the issue. She reveals how the work of many national women's organizations in the Jewish community to seriously address the problem of domestic violence fails to translate into extensive community action at the local level because of factors such as declines in membership among voluntary Jewish organizations (both men's and women's) and the failure of existing organization to collaborate in addressing the problem. …

Domestic violence, lifetime trauma and psychological health of childbearing women

Although histories of abuse are associated with psychiatric illness in women, health professionals rarely enquire directly about such experiences. This study examined the association between physical and sexual violence and lifetime trauma and depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms in women receiving maternity care. Cross sectional study. South London Hospital maternity services. Two hundred women receiving postnatal or antenatal care. Two hundred women receiving postnatal or antenatal care at a South London maternity service were screened for lifetime experiences of trauma and domestic violence. Information was obtained about self-harming behaviour, suicidal thoughts and attempts and psychiatric history. Women completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PTDS). One hundred and twenty-one (60.5%) women reported at least one traumatic event and two-thirds of these had experienced multiple traumatic events. The most frequent (34%) was witnessing or experiencing physical assault by a family member. Forty-seven (23.5%) women had experienced domestic violence. Physical and sexual abuse commonly co-occurred. Thirteen (10.7%) women with a trauma history had current posttraumatic stress disorder. Severe posttraumatic symptoms were associated with physical and sexual abuse histories and repeat victimisation. Adult and childhood physical and sexual abuse histories were also associated with more severe depressive symptomatology. Significant social factors associated with depression were being single, separated or in a non-cohabiting relationship. Traumatic events are under-recognised risk factors in the development of depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms in childbearing women. Childhood abuse creates a vulnerability to re-traumatisation in adulthood. Awareness of the impact of trauma and abuse on psychological health may enable more appropriate targeting of clinical services and support for women receiving maternity care.

Population Inequality: The Case of Repeat Crime Victimization

This paper employs data from the 2000 British Crime Survey for England and Wales to discuss ways of illustrating the degree of inequality in the distribution of crime victimization. In particular, Lorenz curves are presented for major crime categories, i.e. property, personal and vehicle crime, and their components are presented. They are fitted both nationally (Le. to victimized and non-victimized people) and amongst victims. Crime Lorenz curves over victims illustrate repeat victimization. Additional repeat victimization statistics, such as concentration, the percentage of repeat crimes and the percentage of repeat victims, are also shown. Threats and assaults are the most recurring crimes, whereas theft of vehicles shows low rates of repetition within a year.

Domestic Violence and Repeat Victimization

This paper seeks to establish domestic violence as the most prevalent repeated, criminal offence of our time. The author makes use of his experience in introducing the United Kingdom's first ever Repeat Victimiaztion Methodology to the crime of domestic violence, implemented in Killingbeck Division, Leeds. He seeks to show that early structured intervention does reduce repeated attendances and that significant achievements can be made with little or no extra resources. The paper demonstrates, by reference to a murder case study, the tragic consequences of agencies' failure to share information. A number of policy recommendations are made for consideration by governments, many of which are now being implemented in the United Kingdom.

Strategies and Tactics: Contexts and Mechanisms — The Essence of Effective Prevention

Targeting repeat victimization comprises a way of achieving effectiveness, efficiency and equity in crime prevention. Research has found that victimization leads to increased risk of further victimization, especially in the short term; that ‘hot spots’ have a disproportionate number of repeat victims; and that repeat offences tend to be committed by prolific offenders. The development of successful crime reduction tactics and strategies also requires detailed attention to the mechanisms through which patterns are generated and may be disrupted, and the contexts relevant to differing mechanisms. Inattention to these is liable to lead to the implementation of ineffective measures or measures with counterproductive unintended consequences. Four generic approaches appear to have particular promise in devising effective crime reduction initiatives, including those targeting repeat victimization: situational analysis and problem-solving; cumulative protective intervention; synthesis of prevention, detection and disruption; and near neighbour mobilization.

Victimisation and Re-victimisation Risk, Housing Type and Area: A Study of Interactions

It is often assumed that less ostensibly affluent homes (eg terraced housing) are more at risk than other types of housing (such as detached houses) of being burgled. The research reported here shows these patterns to be strongly influenced by the area in which houses are located. The results demonstrate that detached houses in deprived areas are particularly vulnerable to both victimisation and repeat victimisation. In such areas, detached houses are at over three times the risk of being burgled than terraced housing. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the influences of area and housing type interact. For instance, detached houses located in deprived areas are at over seven times the risk of detached houses in affluent areas. Consequently, crime prevention agencies are cautioned against simply using area-level indices of deprivation when targeting resources, or assuming that housing most often associated with individual-level deprivation should be the first in line for assistance.

Dating Violence Attributions: Do They Differ for In-Group and Out-Group Members Who Have a History of Dating Violence?

In this research we examined the influence of in-group bias and dating violence history on dating violence attributions. Participants were 113 college students (97 women and 16 men; age M=21.9). They read a vignette that depicted dating violence and then completed a questionnaire concerning the assault. The couple was described as either part of the participants' in-group or the participants' out-group. The dating violence was described as either a first-time event for the couple or a repeated act of violence. Participants formed more lenient attributions for the in-group assailant than for the out-group assailant, but only if he was a first-time assailant rather than a repeat assailant. In addition, participants attributed less blame to the in-group victim than to the out-group victim, but only if she was a repeat victim of dating violence. These findings are examined in relation to in-group bias.

How does trauma beget trauma? Cognitions about risk in women with abuse histories.

This study examined the associations between perceived risks and benefits of drug use, unsafe sexual behavior, alcohol consumption, and aggressive/illegal behavior and reports of expected involvement in those behaviors in a sample of 340 college women with and without histories of interpersonal victimization (i.e., child sexual abuse, child physical abuse, adult sexual assault, and aggravated assault). Trauma victims reported greater perceived benefits and lower perceived risks associated with risky sexual behavior, illicit drug use, and heavy drinking, but not aggressive/illegal behavior than nonvictims. Victims also reported greater expected involvement in risky sex behavior, drug use, and heavy drinking. Regression analyses revealed that the relationship between victim status and expected involvement in risky behaviors was mediated by cognitions about risks and benefits of risky behavior, controlling for trauma-related symptoms. Implications of the findings for the understanding of repeat victimization are discussed.

Definitional and Methodological Issues Related to Transnational Research on Intimate Partner Violence

To address intimate partner violence (IPV) transnationally, we must examine standardization of both terminology and measurement. This article comments on public health surveillance and efforts toward standardizing terminology on violence against women and IPV. Starting with information about IPV from two U.S. surveys, it identifies issues including cueing and screening questions, survey context, repeat victimization, bounding, and question order to be considered in developing transnational research. Some steps for standardizing IPV measures include replicating initial findings in additional countries, agreeing on breadth of focus, determining strategies for choosing standard measures, and allowing for periodic updates to standardized definitions and measures.

The Burglary as Clue to the Future

Predicting when and where crimes are likely to occur is crucial for prioritizing police resources. Prior victimization is an excellent predictor of risk. Repeat victimization, when it occurs, tends to occur swiftly after an initial incident. The predictive power of prior victimization is greater than that of other analysed variables (see Budd 1999). Self-evidently, prior victimization yields no prediction about properties as yet unvictimized. This article, using data about the crime of domestic burglary, contends that research should seek to realize the predictive potential to be gained from both pre-and post-victimization factors. One of the advantages of crime reduction through the prevention of repeats is that it offers a constant (and, it is hoped, declining) rate of events that trigger preventive action, and hence a natural pace for preventive work. In that spirit, postvictimization prevention should, as well as targeting the victimized home, also protect other properties that are similar with respect to the dimensions used by burglars in target selection. The central purpose of the research here reported is to identify the ways in which it is prudent to allocate crime reduction resources in the wake of an offence and across time and location relative to the burgled home. We analysed police-recorded crime burglary data for the county of Merseyside. Using statistical techniques developed to study the transmission of disease, we first confirmed that burglaries do cluster in space and time. The operational payoff of this result is that a residential burglary flags the elevated risk of further residential burglaries in the near future (1-2 months) and in close proximity (up to 300-400 metres) to the victimized home. Put simply, the burglary event should trigger preventive action that is not restricted to the burgled home. The data enable prospective burglary hot-spotting.

Victimization and Repeat Victimization Over the Life Span: A Predictive Study and Implications for Policy

This study was based on the 1999 General Social Survey, a national Canadian survey of criminal victimization involving about 26,000 individuals, 15 years of age and over. More than half of all respondents (57.8%) reported experiencing at least one criminal incident during their life span. More than one in eight (13.5%) were victimized more than once and these repeat victims experienced over half (54%) of all offences. Less than 5% of the sample was victimized three times or more, although these individuals experienced nearly a quarter of all offences reported by the respondents. Logistic regression analyses, relating to violent, property, and all offences, revealed that the variables that best predicted victimization and repeat victimization were age, province of residence, and education, while gender, ethnicity, country of birth, urban residence, and routine activities were less consistent in their ability to predict victimization as a whole or repeat victimization. Taken together, the predictors achieved modest success in predicting membership in the victim and non-victim groups. The study concluded that the concentration of victimization warranted victim-based preventive measures, with the qualification that nearly half of all victimizations were not experienced by repeat but, rather, single-incident victims. It was also recommended that special attention be accorded in the future to understanding the relatively low level of lifetime victimization of persons 65 years of age and over, the elevated risk faced by residents of British Columbia, and the risks of violence faced by Aboriginal Canadians. The study concludes with a call for the use of alternative methodologies to study victimization and for the validation of the General Social Survey through a smaller number of face-to-face interviews in order to ascertain the role played by recall and disclosure issues in victimization surveys involving telephone interviews.

Acknowledging the Influence of Geographic Outliers: An Analytical Caution in Examining Chronic Repeat Victimization

Evidence suggests that repeat victimization at specific addresses is higher in areas identified by computer algorithms as being ‘hot spots’. Recently developed explanations for the existence of repeat victimization2 within high-crime areas extend the tenets of crime pattern and routine activities theories. The emerging hypotheses account for the apparent overlap by suggesting that offenders in the area are more prolific (returning to known or ‘quickly replenishing’ opportunity more frequently) or that there is a concentration of nearby offenders whose routine activities expose them to the same victims.3 The current demonstration presents a methodological caution to those engaged in this stream of research. Some of the apparent overlap between chronic repeat victimization at precise addresses and hot spots can be attributed to analytic factors associated with the mapping software used to identify geographic concentrations of crime. This implies the need for careful consideration of the appropriateness of analytic strategies that are significantly influenced by the presence of extreme values or spatial outliers.

Petrol Service Stations as Victims of Crime: Their Risks and Vulnerabilities

While research into crimes against specific business sectors has begun to grow in recent years, differences in the experience of crime between individual types of business within a sector may remain obscured. This is problematic because it can result in an averaging effect and may mask real differences in levels of crime. This paper builds on recent findings concerning the nature and extent of crimes committed against petrol retail outlets, to provide a more complete picture of their risks of robbery compared with other types of retail business, the psychological consequences of crime and levels of repeat victimisation. Drawing on nationally recorded data plus survey data, it is shown that petrol service stations in Australia have been facing an increased risk of robbery in recent years, and that the financial and psychological costs of crime at petrol station outlets are substantial. It is argued that identifying risk factors which differentiate victims from non-victims is essential if crime prevention strategies are to be appropriately targeted.

Infectious Burglaries. A Test of the Near Repeat Hypothesis

This paper explores one aspect of spatial dependence for the offence of burglary, utilising epidemiological methods for the study of infectious diseases to investigate the phenomenon of near repeat victimization. The near repeat burglary hypothesis states that proximity to a burgled dwelling increases burglary risk for those areas that have a high degree of housing homogeneity and that this risk is similar in nature to the temporarily heightened risk of becoming a repeat victim after an initial victimization. The near repeat hypothesis was tested on 34 months of police recorded burglary data across a high crime area of Brisbane, Australia. Near repeats were shown to exist in the study area, mainly in suburbs containing homogeneous housing. Little or no housing diversity, in terms of the type of physical construction and general appearance of dwellings, serves to restrict the extent of repeat victimization. Housing diversity allows offenders a choice of targets, and favoured targets will be ‘revisited’ by burglars. Near identical targets usually present no motive for an offender to favour one property over another. Thus in areas with low housing diversity, victim prevalence should be higher than in areas with heterogeneous housing.

Infectious Burglaries. A Test of the Near Repeat Hypothesis

This paper explores one aspect of spatial dependence for the offence of burglary, utilising epidemiological methods for the study of infectious diseases to investigate the phenomenon of near repeat victimization. The near repeat burglary hypothesis states that proximity to a burgled dwelling increases burglary risk for those areas that have a high degree of housing homogeneity and that this risk is similar in nature to the temporarily heightened risk of becoming a repeat victim after an initial victimization. The near repeat hypothesis was tested on 34 months of police recorded burglary data across a high crime area of Brisbane, Australia. Near repeats were shown to exist in the study area, mainly in suburbs containing homogeneous housing. Little or no housing diversity, in terms of the type of physical construction and general appearance of dwellings, serves to restrict the extent of repeat victimization. Housing diversity allows offenders a choice of targets, and favoured targets will be 'revisited' by burglars. Near identical targets usually present no motive for an offender to favour one property over another. Thus in areas with low housing diversity, victim prevalence should be higher than in areas with heterogeneous housing.

Applying the Concept of Revictimization: Using Burglars' Behaviour to Predict Houses at Risk of Future Victimization

A good predictor of a domestic burglary is whether the property suffered a prior victimization. Using officially reported burglaries, most houses appear to be victimized once and most repeat victims suffer twice only. Defining high-risk properties by waiting for the second burglary has its operational limitations. A police database of burglaries over 45 months is examined to explore whether the modus operandi distinguishes houses burgled once only, from those suffering a revictimization. The use of force, searching behaviour, type of property, place of entry, place of exit, alarm activation and use of a bogus official method of entry are discriminating features. Comparing non-repeats with ‘quick’ Repeats (ie within 365 days), searching behaviour, type of property, entry method and a bogus official strategy are discriminating features. Survival analyses on the latter group reveals that ramming and removing glass are significantly associated with being revictimized sooner rather than later. Conversely, exit via a window indicates a longer period to revictimization. The findings demonstrate the value of crime scene information held by the police and, when guided by an appropriate criminological or operational framework, the benefits of more substantive analyses to prevention and detection initiatives.

Modeling Response Bias in Count: A Structural Approach With an Application to the National Crime Victimization Survey Data

This article considers modeling response bias when the response is a count. The authors adopt a “structural approach” by using a generalized negative binomial mixture of Poisson distribution to model misreported counts, assuming that the distribution of the true response follows a negative binomial distribution. The model may be interpreted as a “stopped-sum” model. A simulated maximum likelihood estimator is proposed, and its finite sample performance is investigated through Monte Carlo simulations. The approach is then applied to analyzing school victimization data drawn from the National Crime Victimization Survey, which allows the authors to identify the individual- and school-related characteristics that could contribute to school crime victimization and to the possible biases on the reported number of repeat victimizations. The authors find that for the reported number of thefts, about 12 percent of respondents overreport the numbers, most of whom actually have not had any item stolen at school.

The role of repeat victimization in adolescent delinquent behaviors and recidivism

Purpose To report prevalence of adolescent victimization and delinquency recidivism as well as to assess the association between repeat victimization and delinquency recidivism in a large, population-based sample of high school seniors. Methods A nationally representative sample of the Monitoring the Future Project (about 17,000 high school seniors from 1996 to 1999) was analyzed as a pooled sample. The analysis was based on self-reported measures of ten different types of delinquent behaviors including violent and property offenses. Other measures included in the analysis are victimization and information about sociodemographic (e.g,. geographic region, parental education, number of parents in the home) and lifestyle (e.g., grade from average, truancy, work experience, religious commitment) characteristics. Pairwise and multivariate methods were used to examine the risk association between repeat victimization and delinquency recidivism. Results From 1996 to 1999, a downward trend was observed for most types of delinquent behaviors: recidivism among seniors except for hitting instructors/supervisors, damaging school property, and car theft. For the same study period, the prevalence of victimization recidivism was also on the decline except for injury with a weapon and physical threats. Repeat victimization was found to be significantly associated with delinquency recidivism. Other risk factors more frequently associated with delinquency recidivism included gender, race, drug use, poor school performance, truancy, risk-seeking, and conflicts with parents. Conclusions The present study showed a significant association between repeat victimization and delinquent recidivism; it identified characteristics of adolescent at risk of repetitive delinquent behaviors, which could be used for planning intervention strategies.

Repeat Criminal Victimization and Vulnerability for Coping Failure: A Prospective Examination of a Potential Risk Factor

The psychological impact of repeat victimization is commonly assessed via victimization surveys that are retrospective in nature. Associations between repeat victimization and coping failure may then easily be inflated due to memory biases, such as mood-congruence effects. This study examined the status of repeat victimization as a resilience or vulnerability factor for psychological distress on the basis of a prospective design, which included measures administered prior to the first victimization, and follow up measures of repeat victimization. Analyses revealed a series of significant differences in both the personal (e.g. in perceptions of pre-victimization comparative vulnerability, and prior life stress) and social risk (e.g. insufficient social support) profiles of repeat versus singular victims. Analyses suggested that re-exposure within a short time interval negatively influenced post-victimization functioning: this impact was only partly mediated by other risk factors. The validity of police decisions to refer victims to victim support can be enhanced through incorporating repeat victimization as an additional referral criterion.