Patterns of online repeat victimisation and implications for crime prevention

Abstract

This paper explores the characteristics of repeat victimisation (RV) in relation to fraud and computer misuse (F&CM) crimes recorded in Wales, United Kingdom (UK). The wider study included mixed-methods analysis of a sample of cases (n = 10,001) reported by individuals in Wales, over a period of two years (ending in September 2016). In this paper, key results from the quantitative part of this study concerning RV are presented. This paper contributes to an empirically grounded understanding RV with respect to F&CM and its insights are of direct relevance to theoretical understandings of victimisation and the formulation of interventions within the ‘Protect’ strand of policing in the UK. It suggests that older age is associated with RV for these crime types, that a repeat report is likely to be of the same general type as the crime which preceded it and that interventions to protect individuals from being re-victimised are best targeted within two weeks to one month of the first report. The paper also highlights the extent to which RV analysis is constrained by the rules which shape crime recording and identifies avenues for improvement of data collection and further research. Furthermore, it suggests the need to develop a framework of F&CM vulnerability which goes beyond risk of re-victimisation and better accounts for and enables a response to victims’ wider support needs.