Lecture 4: Victim Focused Crime Prevention - In-Depth Notes

Lecture Aims

  • Victimisation risk: Understanding the concept of victimisation risk.
  • Risk Factors: Identifying factors that contribute to victimisation risk.
  • Tailoring Crime Prevention: Discussing how to tailor crime prevention activities based on risk.
  • Impact of Mobility during COVID-19: Examining the effects of mobility and opportunity on crime during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Fear of Crime: Analyzing the fear associated with crime.

Types of Crime Prevention Projects (Van Dijk & de Waard, 1991)

Developmental Stages

  • Primary Prevention: Targeting the general public to deter potential offenders and enhance feelings of safety.
  • Secondary Prevention: Aimed at specific risk groups or situations to address elevated risks in certain areas.
  • Tertiary Prevention: Focused on core groups or situations to prevent recidivism and repeated offenses.

Target Focus

  • Situation Focused: Making crime difficult for offenders, addressing high crime areas.
  • Offender Focused: Strengthening individual inhibitions against committing crimes, including prevention of recidivism.
  • Victim Focused: Raising public awareness on protection against crime, vulnerability to victimisation, and preventing repeat victimisation.

Understanding Victimisation Risk

  • Definition of Risk: Probability of harm (O’Malley, 2013).
  • Identifying Victims: Methods to determine high-risk individuals for various crimes (e.g., through police data and surveys).

Victimisation Risk Factors

High-risk Personal Factors

  • Being divorced or single.
  • Residing in rented housing or flat.
  • Having children.
  • Living with 3 or more adults.

Low-risk Personal Factors

  • Home ownership and high household income (>£30k).
  • Being long-term residents.

Repeat Victimisation

  • Definition: Experiencing the same type of crime multiple times.
  • Multiple Victimisation (Polyvictimisation): Victimisation from more than one type of crime.
  • Near Repeat Victimisation: Increased risk for nearby properties after an incident occurs.
  • Statistics highlight that a small fraction of victims account for a significant proportion of crime.

Tailoring Activity Based on Risk

  • Crime is concentrated by location (places), demographics (age, vulnerability), and time (time of day/week/year).
  • Need for targeted use of resources for effective crime prevention strategies.

Impacts of COVID-19 on Crime

  • Largest Criminological Experiment: The response to COVID-19—lockdowns and restrictions—greatly affected crime rates and patterns (Stickle & Felson, 2020).
  • Changes in movements led to altered opportunities for crime, indicating the need for adaptable crime prevention approaches.

Community Responses and Changes

  • Increased interactions among neighbors and community groups during lockdowns may have influenced crime dynamics.
  • Emergence of new crime phenomena during the pandemic, such as dog theft and fraudulent activities related to health measures.

Fear of Crime

  • Definition: Emotional response of dread regarding crime; affected by personal and altruistic fears (Ferraro, 1995).
  • Impacts of Fear: Can lead to behavioral responses that enable avoidance, protective measures, or community engagement.
  • Disparities between perceived and actual risk can often lead to overestimation of threats, causing emotional distress and isolation.

Victims' Rights and Support

  • Overview of the rights of victims in the criminal justice system, focusing on access to clear communication, timely information about the process, and emotional support.
  • Emphasis on trauma-informed approaches and the importance of victim advocacy within community safety initiatives.

Conclusion

  • The lecture highlighted victimisation factors and the need for adaptive strategies to address emerging crime trends, particularly in response to the effects of COVID-19 on crime rates and community safety.