Defining a Victim
At the simplest level, a ‘repeat victim’ could be a person, a place or a thing,
such as a car.
Repeat victimisation can take a variety of forms. For example:
The
same crime has high levels of repeat victimisation across a geographic area,
for example high levels of repeat house burglary;
Geographical pockets, for example, a particular housing estate
or a car park have high levels of repeat victimisation in one or a number of crime
types
Particular groups of people are repeat victims, for example,
ethnic minorities, witnesses in criminal cases, or students;
The same types of organisation are suffering repeat victimisation,
for example, schools or hospitals
Victims are experiencing different types of crime, for example,
a black and minority ethnic person may experience burglary, damage to a car, verbal
abuse, graffiti on their property or their children may be bullied at school
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Problem oriented crime reduction and repeat victimisation
Many police forces and some local authorities are adopting a problem-oriented approach
to crime and disorder reduction, stemming from the problem oriented policing model
first developed in the US.
Repeat victimisation is related to problem oriented policing/crime reduction: both
approaches work on the basis that past victimisation predicts future victimisation
and can be used in complementary ways to tackle crime and disorder.
They differ in that the repeat victim is likely to be more specific, for example
a woman who has experienced domestic violence or a repeatedly burgled house. The suggestion
is that repeat victimisation can be prevented by intervening after the first victimisation
while problem oriented policing tackles problems where there is already a series of
events, usually based around a geographical area.
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