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Repeat victimization
Chapter · January 2010
DOI: 10.4135/9781412979993.n258
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Encyclopedia of Victimology
and Crime Prevention
Repeat Victimization
Contributors: Louise Grove & Graham Farrell
Editors: Bonnie S. Fisher & Steven P. Lab
Book Title: Encyclopedia of Victimology and Crime Prevention
Chapter Title: "Repeat Victimization"
Pub. Date: 2010
Access Date: March 31, 2015
Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc.
City: Thousand Oaks
Print ISBN: 9781412960472
Online ISBN: 9781412979993
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412979993.n258
Print pages: 767-769
©2010 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This PDF has been generated from SAGE knowledge. Please note that the pagination
of the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book.
Simon Fraser University
©2010 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE knowledge
http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412979993.n258
Repeat victimization has both a narrow and a broad definition. The narrow definition
refers to repeated offenses against the same person, household, business, or other
target however defined. The broad definition refers to repeat offenses against targets
with equivalent profiles such as nearby households, the same type of electronic
products, or individuals with similar demographic or lifestyle characteristics.
Most violent and personal crime is repeat victimization. For all crime types covered
by the [p. 767 ↓ ] International Crime Victimization Survey (ICVS), more than 40% is
repeated against the same targets in any given year—a conservative estimate. Repeat
victimization has a heightened risk in the period immediately after victimization. Since
society is more informed about where, when, and to an extent repeat crime is likely to
occur, this means as members of society we really ought to be able to do something
to prevent it. It is often not intuitively obvious what should be done or how, although
sustainable measures will tackle both long- and short-term repeats. Developing crime
prevention tactics to tackle repeats is sorely neglected, and most of the research
remains to be done.
Offenders are creatures of habit, selecting the same or similar targets because they
have learned the likely amounts of time, effort, skill, and resources they need, and the
risks and rewards involved. Hence, success breeds repetition, although repeats can
be driven by frustrated attempts. Particularly attractive targets may also draw crimes
from different offenders. Some households or businesses may contain particularly
valuable products, or some persons may seem particularly vulnerable and attractive.
For example, targets of hate crimes who are visually distinguishable may be repeatedly
victimized by different offenders with a shared motivation. Victims of personal crime
are statistically more likely to also experience property crime, and some explanation
is provided by lifestyle theory: People who frequently go out, to bars and clubs for
example, may be at risk of alcohol-related violence and theft, while their homes are left
unguarded against property crime. Routine activity and crime pattern theory provide
the best explanation of aggregate patterns of repeats. The same targets go to the
same places where they interact with the same offenders, whether on the streets, in
the home, or online. This is as true for domestic violence (typically with one offender
and victim who routinely interact), neighbor assaults (because of their proximity and
frequent interaction), crimes that occur along the routes that victims and offenders take
Page 3 of 6 Encyclopedia of Victimology and Crime Prevention:
Repeat Victimization
Simon Fraser University
©2010 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE knowledge
to and from work and leisure activities, and cybercrimes including fraud, identity theft,
and hacking where the same targets are repeatedly victimized. Murder seems to be the
only crime where repetition does not occur.
Research on repeat victimization emerged in the 1970s, not least because of
methodological studies relating to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).
But the key catalyst was the Kirkholt Burglary Prevention Project in the mid-1980s.
This was the first research to overtly develop the prevention of repeat victimization as
a crime prevention strategy. Research, policy, and practice developed hand-in-hand
during the next 15 years as told in Gloria Laycock's “Repeat victimisation story.” Studies
sponsored by the National Institute of Justice included testing problem-oriented policing
approaches, further NCVS analysis by Jim Lynch and colleagues, and efforts to prevent
repeated domestic violence.
Empowering victims with an aim of preventing repeat victimization means work has
become integrated with that of victim services. It is better to tell victims the truth about
heightened risk rather than to mislead by suggesting that lightning doesn't strike twice.
For police and policy makers, preventing repeat victimization can bring efficiencies via
the drip-feeding of resources to persons, places, and targets most in need. A range of
good practice has evolved. Successful crime prevention efforts tend to be situational
in nature, reducing opportunities for repeat crimes. They are characterized by a strong
preventive mechanism and good implementation, although these are not necessarily
easy to achieve. It is simply not yet clear how to intervene to prevent the recurrence of
some crimes. And it is not always easy to motivate victims to take preventive action,
particularly if expenditure is required and since future risks may still seem low.
Policy relating to victims and crime prevention is increasingly informed by research
evidence, particularly surveys. Yet the key crime surveys, including the NCVS, ICVS,
and the British Crime Survey (BCS), tend to omit much of the experience of repeat
victims from national crime counts. They do this by limiting or excluding series crimes,
which means that only the first few crimes that a victim experienced are counted. The
practice undoubtedly originated out of good intention, probably when it was thought
some victims were exaggerating or inaccurate, but it continues to this day. In the 1970s,
it was thought the NCVS excluded around 20% of U.S. crime by ignoring frequent
victims, but research in 2007 shows the exclusionary effect is far greater with both
Page 4 of 6 Encyclopedia of Victimology and Crime Prevention:
Repeat Victimization
Simon Fraser University
©2010 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE knowledge
the NCVS and the BCS often excluding half or more of violent crime. This systematic
and prolonged [p. 768 ↓ ] distortion of national crime rates is likely to bias evidence-
based policy away from the most vulnerable victims. This is particularly unfortunate
because the effects of frequent victimization can be multiplicative rather than additive.
Although it might be a little embarrassing for governments to begin to recognize
frequent victimization, this is no excuse, and post hoc attempts to rationalize their
exclusion remain unconvincing to many in the field of crime prevention and victimology.
There were few if any convincing explanations of the significant drops in crime
experienced in most industrialized countries in the 1990s and 2000s. Katherine
Thorpe's BCS analysis found multiple victimizations fell 51% in the decade to 2006,
whereas single incidents fell only 16%.
Tackling crime concentrations by interrupting their repetitive nature should be known
as a Pease Response to crime (after the director of the Kirkholt Burglary Prevention
Project) and is an emerging area of research and practice. Repeat victimization occurs
at the interface between repeat offending, geographical hot spots, and frequently
stolen hot products. Preventing repeats may thus provide inroads into the trickiest
concentrations of crime. As a key emerging area where victimology overlaps with crime
prevention, most of the research on repeat victimization remains to be undertaken.
LouiseGrove and GrahamFarrell
http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412979993.n258
See also
• Co-Occurrence of Victimization
• Correlates of Victimization
• Hot Spots
• Victimization, Theories of
• Victimology
Further Readings
Page 5 of 6 Encyclopedia of Victimology and Crime Prevention:
Repeat Victimization
Simon Fraser University
©2010 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE knowledge
Farrell, G., & Pease, K. (2007). The sting in the tail of the British Crime Survey: Multiple
victimizations . In M. Henderson, ed. & M. Henderson (Eds.), Surveying crime in the
21st century (pp. 33–54). Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press.
Forrester, D. (1990). The Kirkholt burglary prevention project phase II . London: Home
Office.
Johnson, S. D., Bernasco, W., Bowers, K. J., Elffers, H., Ratcliffe, J., Rengert,
G., et al. Near repeats: A cross national assessment of residential burglary .
Journal of Quantitative Criminology 23 201–219. (2007). http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/
s10940-007-9025-3
Laycock, G. L. Hypothesis-based research: The repeat victimisation story . Criminal
Justice: The International Journal of Policy and Practice 1 59–82. (2001).
Lynch, J. P., Berbaum, M., & Planty, M. (1998) Investigating repeat victimization with
the NCVS . Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.
Planty, M., Strom, K. J. Understanding the role of repeat victims in the production of
annual victimization rates . Journal of Quantitative Criminology 23 179–200. (2007).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10940-007-9026-2
Shaw, M. (2000). Time heals all wounds? In G. Henderson, ed. & K. Henderson (Eds.),
Repeat victimization . Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press.
Thorpe, K. (2007). Multiple and repeat victimization . In K. Henderson, ed. , S.
Henderson, ed. , J. Henderson, ed. , S. Henderson, ed. , & K. Henderson (Eds.),
Attitudes, perception and risks of crime: Supplementary Volume 1 to Crime in England
and Wales 2006/7 . Home Office Statistical Bulletin 19/07. London: Home Office.
Page 6 of 6 Encyclopedia of Victimology and Crime Prevention:
Repeat Victimization
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