NCJ Number
189375
Date Published
2000
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This report presents key findings from the 1998 British Crime Survey (BCS) regarding whether respondents who had been crime victims or crime witnesses experienced any harassment or intimidation following the original offense.
Abstract
The survey found that 8 percent of all incidents led to victim intimidation. This figure increased to 15 percent in cases where there was potential for intimidation, i.e., when the victim had some knowledge of the offender. Intimidation was more likely to follow offenses of violence and vandalism. Women were particularly likely to experience intimidation following a violent offense (26 percent). Many of these incidents involved domestic violence. The harasser was the original offender in most cases (85 percent). In other cases, it was the offender's family or friends. When the harasser was the original offender, 41 percent of women who experienced intimidation did so from a partner or ex-partner. Nearly three-quarters of the incidents of intimidation involved verbal abuse, 16 percent physical assaults, and 9 percent damage to property. Victim intimidation occurred for many reasons. Only a minority (8 percent) of those intimidated said it was to deter them from giving evidence to the police or in court. Approximately one-third of respondents reported they had witnessed either an act of vandalism, car crime, or a serious fight or assault in the last 5 years. Of those who witnessed any of these crimes, only 8 percent experienced some form of intimidation. Witnesses were most likely to have been intimidated by the original offender (75 percent), and one-fifth were intimidated by the offender's family or friends. As with victims, the majority of incidents (69 percent) involved verbal abuse. Physical assaults and damage to property were relatively rare (16 percent and 13 percent, respectively). 1 table, 3 figures, and 2 references