Crime Prevention and the Understanding of Repeat Victimization

Heterogeneity in the Frequency Distribution of Crime Victimization

“…AtendencyforLow-levelvictimsnottoretaintheirstate,revertingto thegeneraltendencytowardsnon-victimization. A general tendency towards non-victimization over time has also been detected in police-recorded crime data sampled in the English city of Sheffield (Bottoms andCostello,2009)andinPerth,WesternAustralia(Morgan,2007).Incontrast,then,to anexplanationofthedatageneratingprocessofcrimevictimizationascharacterized solelybyexposure,atendencytowardsnon-victimizationovertimealsosuggestsa complementary process of 'non-exposure' or immunity, albeit conditioned by prior state (Hope and Trickett, 2008). Again, the distribution appears to be heterogeneous,althoughthistimefromtheperspectiveofimmunity;notonlydoes thestateofnon-victimizationappeartoberelativelystablebutsotoodoesthestate ofhigh-levelvictimization,albeitasasignificantdeviationfromthegeneraltendency towardsnon-victimization.…”

“…There may be also members of other 'special' populations -for instance, children, prisoners, criminal networks and gangs, victims of corporate crime, victims of domestic violence, the homeless,etc.-thatmighthavedifferentcrimevictimizationdistributions,andwho thus 'deviate' from the general population in the nature of their victimizing state. Analogous to deviancy theories of offending, crime victimization may also have a qualityofdeviance(thatis,departingfromthesocialnormofnon-victimizationfrom direct-contact crime) that would place a special focus substantively on the propensityforvictimization-exposureinpreferencetothatofvictim-prevalence.For instance, Bottoms and Costello (2009) identify a relatively high-level of sustained repeatvictimizationamongsthouseholdscontainingatleastonememberwhohad previously been known to the police, usually as an offender. In this respect, the exposure process might stem from the nexus between offending and victimization (LauritsenandLaub,2007).Thepresentmodelmaynotbesensitiveenoughtothe particular circumstances of certain crime types.…”

“…4 NB2assumesaPoissondistribution,withgamma-distributedunobservedindividual heterogeneity (CameronandTrivedi,1998:71). 5 Even the relatively few analyses of longitudinal crime victimization data to date havebeenunabletodistinguishclearlyandconclusivelythemixingcomponentsof the DGP, or the relative importance of heterogeneity versus state-dependency (Bottoms and Costello;2009;Hope and Trickett, 2008;Hope and Trickett, 2004); Wittebrood and Nieuwbeerta, 2000;Lauritsen and Davis Quinet, 1995). Morgan (2007) provides a detailed discussion and analysis of time-dependent models of crimevictimization.…”