Transcript Understanding Your Local Repeat Victimization Pattern

MODEL ACADEMIC CURRICULUM
MODULE 12
Responding to Targets/Victims
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Module 12 Topics
• Analyzing Repeat Victimization
• Understanding Your Local Repeat
Victimization Pattern
• Responding to Repeat Victimization
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Victim (SITTING DUCK) Problems
• Repeat victimization - victims repeatedly
attacked by different offenders.
• SITTING DUCK problems occur when
victims continually interact with potential
offenders at different places, but the
victims do not increase their precautionary
measures and their guardians are either
absent or ineffective.
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Victim (SITTING DUCK) Problems
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Overlooking Repeat Victimization
Consider a 1990 study of 10,828 reported burglaries:
• 97% of 300,000 addresses were not burglarized
• Only 3% of the addresses (8,116) were burglarized
At first, repeat victimization appears minimal:
• 82% of the victims (6,616 addresses) suffered only one
burglary during the year
• 18% of victims (1,500 addresses) suffered two or more
Analysis sheds further light on repeat victimization:
• 61% of all burglaries (6,616) occurred at addresses with
only one offense
• 39% of all burglaries (4,212) occurred at addresses with two
or more offenses
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80-20 Rule and Repeat
Victimization
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The Extent of Repeat Victimization
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Two Explanations for Repeat
Victimization
• Boost Explanations – repeat
victimization reflects the successful
outcome of an initial offense. Specific
offenders gain important knowledge about
a target from prior experience and use this
information to re-offend.
• Flag Explanations – some targets are
unusually attractive to criminals or
particularly vulnerable to crime.
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Types of Repeat Victimization
• True repeat victims
• Near victims
• Virtual repeats
• Chronic victims
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Where Repeat Victimization Occurs
• Repeat victimization is most common in high crime
areas.
• Persons and places in high crime areas face a greater
risk of initial victimization and they may lack the means
to block a subsequent victimization.
• In high crime areas, crime is so concentrated among
repeat victims that recurring offenses can create hot
spots - relatively small geographic areas in which victims
are clustered.
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When Repeat Victimization Occurs
• Repeat victimization is sometimes most likely to
occur very soon after the initial victimization
(particularly for financially-based crimes).
• For example, studies suggest that the chances
of repeated burglary of homes increases in the
year following the initial burglary
• This may reflect an “insurance effect” whereby
the thieves return to steal property that was
recently replaced by insurance companies.
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Linking Repeat Victimization to
Other Crime Patterns
• Hot spots
• Hot products
• Repeat Offenders
• Crime series
• Risky Facilities
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Special Concerns
• Blaming the victim
• Increasing fearfulness
• Violating privacy of victims
• Displacing crime
• Unintended consequences
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Understanding The Local
Repeat Victimization Pattern
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Selecting Data
• Determining the appropriate time frame
• Determining data sufficiency
• Choosing a denominator
• Identifying key variables
• Determining data limitations
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Analysis Tasks
• Mapping Locations
• Sorting offense data by address
• Sorting offense data by victim name
• Counting victims and offenses
• Cleaning data
• Calculating time course
• Calculating rate
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Planning Further Analyses
• Collecting additional information
• Examining victim-suspect relationships
• Determining the role of boosts
• Comparing victims and non-victims
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Responding to Repeat
Victimization
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Three Primary Responses
1) Protecting victims by blocking future
opportunities against these specific
persons or places
2) Shifting responsibility for repeat
victimization
3) Increasing actual or perceived risks of
apprehension for offenders, primarily for
repeat offenders
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1) Protecting Victims
• Quickly blocking visual signs of victimization
• Improving physical security
• Target hardening
• Rapidly blocking access to targets
• Removing or protecting targets
• Regulating or controlling access
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2) Shifting Responsibility for
Repeat Victimization
• Educating victims or removing
excuses for risky behaviors
• Changing management practices
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3) Increasing Risks to Offenders
• Temporarily increasing surveillance
• Reducing rewards
• Monitoring repeat victimization
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The “Olympic” Response to
Repeat Victimization
• The risk of repeat victimisation increases with
further victimisation.
• Olympic System - first-time victims received a
Bronze response, two-time victims received a
Silver response, and victims of three or more
crimes received a Gold response.
• The Gold response was the most sophisticated,
requiring the most resources, but promising the
greatest preventive returns.
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Measuring Effectiveness
• Reduction in the number or frequency of
reported incidents
• Reduction in the proportion of repeat
offenses
• Reduction in the number or frequency of
calls for service
• Reduction in repeat calls for service
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Measuring Effectiveness
• Reduction in the proportion of repeat victims
• Reduction in completed offenses
• Reduction of value of property taken or harm
associated with offenses
• Increase in arrests associated with offenses
suffered by repeat victims
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Exercise 1
• Using the 25 Techniques, provide one
example for each technique and describe
how it could be used to respond to
targets/victims.
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Exercise 2
• You’re a victim! Evaluate your daily activities,
lifestyle, and living environment. Drawing from
the readings, discuss your vulnerability to
victimization and re-victimization (be specific in
explaining what crime types and why).
• Next, identify what measures you should take to
reduce your vulnerability. You should consider
previous literature on opportunity crime and
situational and environmental prevention.
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Exercise 3
Keep a Crime Prevention Log
For the next week, keep a daily log of all the activities/behaviors you engage in to reduce
crime or the perception of crime opportunity. Use the following format:
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Day
Tuesday
Time
7pm
Location
Parking lot
Behavior
Locked car
To Prevent
Theft from
vehicle
Auto theft
•
Tuesday
10pm
FAU Parking lot
Walked with
fellow student to
parking lot
Assault
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Wednesday
10am
Gardens Mall
Got keys out of
purse 20 feet
before vehicle
Assault
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Turn in a list of entries for these seven days. This can be hand written or typed. Really pay
attention to your actions in order to document ALL crime prevention behavior. You will be
graded on the format, quantity, and quality of your entries.
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