Repeat Victimisation
Definition
The empirical pattern in which a small proportion of people or locations experience a disproportionate share of violent incidents. Domestic violence shows the most pronounced repeat victimisation: most serious cases involve ongoing patterns of abuse rather than isolated incidents.
- Field
- Victimology and crime pattern analysis
- Pattern
- A small share of victims or locations bear a disproportionate share of incidents
- Strongest example
- Domestic violence, where repeat incidents outnumber isolated ones
- Practical use
- Prioritising protective intervention and resource allocation
Common questions
Why does repeat victimisation matter for police resource allocation?+
Because future risk clusters around past victims and locations, targeting protective measures at recently victimised people or addresses prevents a larger share of harm than spreading resources evenly across the population.
Is repeat victimisation the same as chronic victimisation?+
They overlap but are not identical. Repeat victimisation refers to the statistical clustering of incidents on the same target, while chronic victimisation more specifically describes an individual who experiences abuse or crime over an extended period, often within the same relationship or setting.
How quickly does the risk of a repeat incident typically arise?+
Research across burglary and domestic violence studies consistently shows the risk of a second incident is highest in the days and weeks immediately following the first, then declines, which is why rapid follow-up contact is a common prevention strategy.
Related terms
- Routine Activity Theory
- A criminological framework developed by Cohen and Felson (1979) that explains property crime as the product of three converging elements: a motivated...
- Secondary Victimisation
- Additional harm caused to a victim through the process of reporting and investigation, such as disbelief, insensitive questioning, or retraumatisation. Fear of...
- Victim Impact Statement
- A written or oral account submitted by a victim (or victim's family) describing the physical, psychological, financial, and social effects of the...
- Victimology
- The sub-field of criminology that studies crime victims: their characteristics, the victim-offender relationship, the impacts of victimisation, and the adequacy of legal...
- Boost Theory
- The explanation that repeat victimisation arises because the original offender returns, having gained operational knowledge of the target, its routines, and its...
- Dark Figure of Crime
- The gap between the actual volume of crime and the amount recorded in official statistics. Crimes go unrecorded when victims do not...
- Fear-of-Crime Paradox
- The consistent survey finding that older adults and women report higher fear of crime than young men, despite young men carrying the...
- Flag Theory
- The explanation that repeat victimisation arises because a target has stable characteristics, such as poor natural surveillance or weak security, that make...
- Gini Coefficient
- A measure of income inequality ranging from 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (one person holds all income). Consistently one of the strongest...
- Hegemonic Masculinity
- A concept from gender sociology describing the dominant cultural script of manhood in a given society, typically emphasising toughness, control, and willingness...
- Homicide Rate
- The number of unlawful killings per 100,000 population per year. Used as the primary cross-national indicator of violent crime because it is...
- Hot Spot
- A small geographic area, sometimes as small as a single address or street segment, where crime concentrates at a rate substantially above...
Explained in these topics
- Foundations of VictimologyThe empirical finding that individuals and locations victimised once face substantially elevated risk of revictimisation, often within weeks or months. A small...
- Repeat Victimisation and Fear of Crime (UGC-NET Unit X)The same person, household or target being victimised more than once, whether by the same offence type or a different one, within a given period.
- Victim Rights, Support, and the Impact of CrimeThe phenomenon whereby victims of one crime have a substantially higher probability of being victimised again, often by the same offender and soon after the fi...
- Victimisation Patterns and Repeat VictimisationThe occurrence of more than one criminal incident against the same person or place within a defined period. The risk of re-victimisation is highest immediately...
- Violent Crime as a Social Phenomenon