Crime victimization: its extent and communication

Wiles, Paul, Simmons, J. and Pease, Ken (2003) Crime victimization: its extent and communication. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A (Statistics in Society), 166 (2). pp. 247-252. ISSN 0964-1998

Abstract

The criminal justice contexts are identified in which understanding and communicating risks are important. The paper is thereafter exclusively concerned with the probability of crime victimization classified by person and location. Examples of crime risks derived from the British Crime Survey are provided, with instances of where concern about crime diverges from risks of crime. Caution is advocated about seeking to reduce the fear of crime by reassurance. The high levels of concentration of crime by location are noted, together with the fact that particular individuals and households are repeatedly victimized, enabling the prioritization of crime-reductive resources after a crime has taken place. The paper concludes that an emphasis on how the supply of criminal opportunities may be regulated heralds a more systematic approach to the distribution of unavoidable hazard among citizens.

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