The Impact of Repeat Victimisation on Burglary Victims in East and West Europe

This study reports and analyses rates and correlates of repeat victimisation in selected European cities. Rates of repeat were lower outside the English cities surveyed. However, the extreme level of repeat victimisation among dacha victims in Miskolc, Hungary, proved startling, indicating the vulnerability of such property to burglary. There are marked differences between levels of repeat victimisation in different cities and countries. In both East and West Europe, repeat victims are more likely than first-timers to leave the home unoccupied in the daytime for at least six hours. There was no convincing evidence that repeats were more likely to be affected by the burglary at the time it occurred. In essence, it seems likely that the "shock of the new" more than compensates for the "last straw." In this context, it is perhaps surprising that first-timers were more likely to feel they had no need for victim assistance. A different pattern emerges, however, when the longer-term implications of repeat victimisation are considered. "Repeats" were less positive about their neighbours and neighbourhood and more inclined to express a desire to move, and were more likely to register fear, related to both the risk of a future burglary and street offences. This suggests that both crime prevention and community safety initiatives are correctly targeted at repeat victims. As this volume testifies, recent research on repeat victimisation has been considerable, and has, through the Kirkholt initiative (Forrester et al., 1990) and the Safer Cities Programme (Ekblom and Sutton, 1996; Tilley and Webb, 1994), had a major impact on policy Crime Prevention Studies, volume 12, pp. 69-82