Investigating Repeated Victimization With the NCVS, Final Report

• NCJ Number: 193415
• Author(s): James P. Lynch; Michael L. Berbaum; Mike Planty
• Date Published: October 1998
• Length: 169 pages
• Grant Number(s): 97-IJ-CX-0027
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)

Annotation

This study examined both repeat burglary victimization and repeat assault victimization by analyzing data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) for the years 1992 through 1995.

Abstract

The burglary victimization experience of respondents to the NCVS was assessed at 6-month intervals over a 3-year period. The analysis confirmed that prior burglary victimization was positively related to subsequent burglary victimization, but other attributes of housing units and their occupants were much stronger predictors of burglary risk. Age of the household head, location of the housing unit, and whether the household head was married were much better predictors of burglary. Other attributes such as changes in household composition and size of the household were approximately equal to prior victimization in predicting subsequent burglary victimization. This finding suggests that prior burglary victimization should not be the determining variable for guiding resource allocation in the prevention of burglary victimization. Based on the findings of a literature review, the analysis of repeat assaults focused on three domains for assaults: work, school, and domestic violence. These were the settings in which the bulk of high volume repeat assaults occurred, suggesting there was something in these settings that promoted repeat assaults. The focus of this analysis was on repeat assaults at work and between intimates, since these domains were where the highest number of repeat assaults occurred. The single best predictor of whether assaults among intimates became chronic was whether the assaults were reported to police. This suggests an increased emphasis on reporting intimate violence to police. In the case of repeat assaults at work, however, the involving of third parties such as the police had little effect on the termination of the assaults. Situational modifications were found to be more effective in preventing repeat assaults than offender-oriented interventions. Situational interventions could include having persons work in teams or having those in order-maintenance roles avoid confrontation until they have the superior force that can discourage assaults. 5 tables and 37 references