NCJ Number
189392
Date Published
2001
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This chapter compares the rate of repeat criminal victimization -- the proportion of crimes that were repeated against the same persons or household -- across country and crime type for the 1989, 1992, and 1996 sweeps of the International Crime Victims Survey (ICVS).
Abstract
The offenses for which repeat victimization was examined were burglary, attempted burglary, car theft, car vandalism, assault and threats, bicycle theft, motorcycle theft, personal theft, robbery, and sex offenses. The mean international repeat victimization rates were consistent across ICVS sweeps. Using this indicator, rates of repeat victimization have changed little over time as a proportion of all crime. Generally, personal crimes had higher rates of repeat victimization than property crimes. Of the crime types addressed in the survey, sex offenses consistently had the highest rates of repeat victimization. Between 40 percent and 50 percent of sex offenses were repeat offenses against the same women for each sweep of the survey. Between 30 percent and 40 percent of all assaults and robberies were repeat victimizations of the same persons, followed by robberies and car vandalism. Assaults and threats also showed high and consistent rates of repeat victimization across countries. Eight of the 11 countries for which 1996 rates were available had a 5-percent band between 40 percent and 45 percent of all assaults and threats being repeated against the same persons. Repeated robbery, at approximately 28 percent of all robberies, had the third highest mean international rate of repeat victimization. Car vandalism was likely to be repeated, more so than theft of or from cars. Suggestions are offered for future research in this area. 7 figures, 5 tables, and 4 references