Global Advances in Victimology and Psychological Studies, 1(1) : 7-19; 2022
Online ISSN: Applied For
Global Advances in Victimology and
Psychological Studies
Michael O'Connell
Secretary-General, World Society of Victimology & Vice President, NGO Alliance on Crime Prevention & Criminal
Justice (UN Vienna); michael_oconnell@consultingvictimologist.com
Same, Same but Dierent: Preventing Crime and Preventing
Victimisation
1. Introduction
On an international level the United Nations has
convened an annual commission and a 5-yearly congress
on crime prevention and criminal justice. ese focus
on, among other items, crime prevention strategies and
practices. In 1985, the congress recommended the United
Nations General Assembly endorse the Declaration
of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime
and Abuse of Power. e preamble in this declaration
recommends “collaborative action-research on ways in
which victimisation can be reduced and victims aided,
and to provide aid designed to “curtail victimisation and
alleviate the plight of victims” (United Nations, 1985).
More recent, via the Sustainable Development Goals,
the international community seeks a future for all in which
violence and crime are reduced (hopefully eliminated)
and social and economic barriers that serve in equality
are removed. Governments have agreed, for instance,
to end intimate partner violence (Moreno, 2021), child
Keywords: Crime Prevention, Domestic Violence, Preventing Victimisation, Repeat Victimisation Crime Victims’ Rights,
Residential Burglary, Victim Assistance
Abstract
In 1985, the international community agreed tackle the causes of crime to prevent victimisation. Since then, that commu-
of preventive activities. However, while crime prevention and preventing victimisation, on the one hand, are ‘same, same’,
on the other hand, they are ‘different’.
Research Article
Same, Same but Dierent: Preventing Crime and Preventing Victimisation
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misuse of personal information in 2020 compared to 2019
in Australia).
Whatever form it takes, crime is unacceptable in any
community and in any culture. It is apparent that, despite
the commitments made, nowhere is immune from crime
and the resultant victimisation of its people. e author
argues for prioritising people’s safety through preventive
activities, so they do not become victims. He also asserts
that victim assistance is a necessary element if crime
prevention activities are to intended results–preventing
people becoming victims of crime.
2. Causes of Criminal Victimisation
Over more than one half of a century of research, data
analysis etc has contributed to an impressive volume
of knowledge on the causes of and risk factors for
crime and criminal victimisation (Waller, 2019), and
as well how to eectively prevent crime and reduce
victimisation (Sherman, Farrington, Welsh & MacKenzie,
2006; Waller, 2019). Because criminal victimisation
is not a unidimensional concept, there are also many
theories about its causes. Many factors, either alone or
in combination, have been put forward to explain crime
and apparent changes in the rates of crime. For example,
there is a correlation between economic hardship and
crime. High poverty levels and unemployment– both
highlighted in the targets underpinning the SDGs–also
tend to inate the crime rate.
2.1 e Rationale for Crime Prevention
e acquired knowledge shows better prevention is
economically sensible (Homel, 2009) and indeed essential
(Waller, 2019). It also shows that simply labelling a
programme preventive does not prove it prevents crime
(Welsh & Farrington, 2007). ere are gaps, however,
in our knowledge. In a relative sense, there is a paucity
of sound evaluations of victimisation prevention
programmes (Fox & Shjarback, 2016). Indeed, some of
programmes that have existed or exist are inuenced by
anecdotal information, over-attention to the so-called
squeaky wheel, trends or programme favourites of the
month, and political imperatives as well as ideology
(Sherman et al., 2006; Sutton, Cherney & White, 2014).
abuse and to tackle the nexus between organised crime,
terrorism and development as well as eradicate corruption
(Stelzer, 2021).
Despite member-states agreeing with the SDGs and
implementing strategies intended to achieve them, too
many are nowhere near achieving them. Globalisation has
created cracks and vacuums of power and increasingly
porous geo-politico borders (O’Connell, 2020). e
international community has witnessed, and still does,
the inux of people such as refugees and migrants, on the
move from armed conict and economic woes (Pitsuwan,
2011). At the COP26, much was said on the plight of
those impacted by climate change, including victims of
environmental crime. e pandemic has exacerbated
some crimes, such as violence against women, and there is
evidence of increased violence across diverse settings and
populations (Me, 2021). According to O’Connell (2020,
p1), “Lost income and employment, and social isolation
are among factors that have contributed to increase the
risk of violence.
Tracking in humans has not abated although many
countries have closed their borders to legitimate travellers.
e pandemic, said UNODC Executive Director Ghada
Waly (2021), “has increased vulnerabilities to tracking
in persons while making tracking even harder to
detect and leaving victims struggling to obtain help and
access to justice”. Moreover, once identied, victims are
oen reluctant to cooperate because of not identifying
themselves as victims, lacking trust in criminal justice
personnel and justice processes, and perceiving
cooperation as contrary to their best interests (Bales &
Lize, 2007; UNGIFT 2008; Farrell, Owens & McDevitt,
2014; Gallagher & Karlebach, 2011).
e more common types of tech-abuse (such as
harassment and surveillance) have also increased during
the pandemic (Powell, Flynn & Sugiura, 2021) e
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
(ACCC) (2021), for instance, reported an increase in 2020
in phone calls to deceive people and acquire their personal
information, which the ACCC attributed to more people
staying in their homes during the covid-pandemic. As
well, the ACCC recorded an 84 percent increase in the
number of reported scams in 2020 compared with 2019
(McAlister & Franks, 2021) who reported a decrease in
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Why is this omission important? Knowing ‘what
works’ in reducing victimisation has direct implications
for improving people’s quality of life; raising people’s
awareness of victimisation and its eects; improving
ways to assist victims that, for instance, help them cope
adaptively and crucially, to ‘do no more harm’.
2.2 e Rationale for Preventing
Victimisation
In a recent meta-analysis of over eighty victimisation
prevention programmes (Fox and Shjarback, 2016), the
researchers found that the mostly eective programmes
were those targeted at children and adolescences. Several
anti-bullying programmes, for instance, that involved
a variety of participants, and a variety of programme
components reduced bullying among school-aged
children. Several school-based programmes addressing
beliefs and attitudes to counter intimate partner violence
were also eective in raising awareness about healthy
relationships, encouraging positive communication
within relationships and instilling beliefs and attitudes
intolerant of violence. Furthermore, several ‘creative
component’ programmes raised awareness among
children.
e researchers concluded, however, that there is a
signicant decit in our knowledge, and this is particularly
so regarding ‘what works’ to reduce victimisation among
adults (O’Connell, 2020). In the elds of victimology and
criminal justice, acknowledgment of this omission is not
new, but dates back several decades. In 1988, for example,
the South Australia Commissioner of Police, David
Hunt, released a discussion paper titled ‘Victims Past:
Victims Present’ in which he espoused the desirability
of “pre-emptive eorts aimed at minimising the risk of
people becoming victims of crime … [Furthermore]
reducing the risk of crime, is of major signicance.” Like
Fox and Shjarback (2016), Hunt (1988) noted that only
a few victimologists had focused on the prevention of
victimisation; instead, the greater attention had been
paid to the victim’s plight in the criminal justice system
and preventing secondary victimisation (Shapland,
Willmore & Du, 1985; Bard & Sangrey, 1986;
Gardner, 1990).
3. The Case for Preventing
Victimisation
Preventing victimisation requires a multifaceted approach
that not only tackles the physical environmental and/or
situational contexts in which crime occurs but also the
root causes of crime. Environmental preventive measures
incorporated crime prevention through environmental
design. Situational approaches favour neither physical
nor social measures because, Weatheritt (1986) explains,
crime results from the interplay of circumstantial and
motivational factors, and the balance of these varies
with dierent crimes. Hence, it is necessary to draw on
both physical and social measures. Consistent with this
approach to crime prevention, projects to reduce repeat
victimisation of residential burglary victims were run in
several Australian jurisdictions in the late 1990s, early
2000s. Proponents asserted that the phenomena of repeat
victimisation aorded policy makers and practitioners
with opportunities to direct resources at areas or groups
‘at risk’ and potentially have a ‘high impact eect’ (Farrell
& Pease, 1993). Furthermore, they proposed that victims
could play a constructive role in making their homes and
their communities safer.
Projects in the Queensland and South Australia
(Henderson, 2002), and later in the Australian Capital
Territory (ACT) (Holder, Payne & Makkai, 2004),
tested dierent types of intervention. e Queensland
project “aimed to provide an enhanced police response
to residential break and enter, with a specic focus on
repeat victimisation” (Henderson, 2002, p14); whereas
the South Australia project “was designed to prevent
repeat victimisation through a range of local community
resources and services that are alternative and additional
to current practice in preventing and reducing residential
break and enter” (Henderson, 2002, p14). e ACT
project had similar aims to the other projects but, based
partly on lessons learnt, “sought to combine and link both
enhanced police response and a targeted community
response to burglary” (Holder et al., 2004, P11). ey all
delivered a greater level of information, invited victims to
take up preventive interventions and assistance to victims
of burglary. Table one gives an overview of the crime
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prevention and victim support interventions oered by
each project.
e meta-evaluation of the Queensland and South
Australia projects concluded that they were successful
in preventing repeat burglary but not burglary overall
(Henderson, 2002). An evaluation of the South Australia
project concluded that a lesser number of victims than
anticipated took up one or more of the interventions and
fewer than expected utilised victim support services.
Mid-way through the evaluation of the ACT project it
became evident burglary victims also were not taking up
the preventive interventions oered, so this became the
focus of inquiry (Holder et al., 2004). e ndings suggest
that victims of residential burglary are “more robust and
self-reliant in how they manage and respond to being
victimised” than assumed. On victim resilience, data
from a recent survey in Australia about identity crime
and misuse shows most victim-respondents changed
their behaviour in some way in response to the misuse
of their identity or personal data. ere was, in addition,
“a signicant reduction between 2019 and 2020 in the
proportion of people being more careful when using
or sharing personal information aer victimisation”
(McAlister & Franks 2021).
Victims in the ACT Residential Burglary project were
asked if they had changed their responses to residential
burglary (Holder et al., 2004, p43). About two thirds stated
that they had made at least one change, and among these
Intervention Queensland South Australia ACT
Crime prevention
information oered Yes – By police Yes – By trained
volunteers
Yes – By police with
follow-up oered
Home security audit Yes –By police Yes – By trained
volunteers
Yes – By police & victims
invited to self-audit with
checklist provided by
police
Home security advice Yes – By police Yes – By trained
volunteers
Yes – By police with
follow-up oered
Home security hardware Yes – Police loaned a
portable alarm In one of the project areas Yes – for specic
categories
Property marking Yes – Police oered a kit
Yes – Referrals to
volunteers who
marked property &
available under local
Neighbourhood Watch
programme
No – but was available
under the local
Neighbourhood Watch
Programme
Victim notied about the
project Yes – By police Yes – By police
Yes – Initially by police
but also by packaged
information.
Victim support Yes – By police referrals
Yes – By trained
volunteers and sometimes
by police victim contact
ocer follow-up
Yes – By police
Victim surveys Yes –By police Yes –By trained
volunteers
Yes – Victim Liaison
Ocer, Police Crime
Prevention Branch
Source: Henderson (2002) and Holder et al., (2004)
Table 1. Crime prevention and victim support oered
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victims, the most stated change was to prevent another
burglary: for instance, altering their house-locking
patterns. Furthermore, households that experienced
repeat burglary were more likely, if they could aord
it, to install a burglar alarm. About one h of victims
stated that they changed their daily movements, such as
varying their departure and arrival times. Notably, while
about one h of victims were willing to receive contact
from victims of crime support service, about one third of
victims were unwilling to receive such contact. Moreover,
victim support was rarely contacted because many did
not regard it, as necessary. is nding is consistent with
earlier ndings aer like projects were trialled and tested
in the UK.
4. A Cautious Note on Victim
Blaming
Across the three residential burglary projects, importantly,
data suggests that interventions did not reach, and if they
did, they were not taken up, groups in the populations
who were most at risk of repeat victimisation. Like other
crime prevention strategies, there were concerns not to
re-victimise those who became victims of crime, or to be
seen to be blaming them. Victim blaming is a contentious
issue. Early victimologists theorised that some victims
precipitate their own demise or suering. Out of the early
works of von Hentig, Mendelsohn and others evolved the
notion of shared or functional responsibility. e concept
of the ideal victim, which, like shared or functional
responsibility, challenged the innocence of the victim
were not intended to blame the victim and exonerate the
oender. Yet, the hostility of those who read the theorising
as such hampered the legitimacy of victimology as a
social science. Preventative strategies focusing directly on
victimity (that is the proclivity to be a victim), on the one
hand, are likely to attract accusations of victim blaming
but, on the other hand, might if done with sympathetic
reassurance and such as to nurture trust, might foster
wisdom and knowing to avoid future victimisation
(Johnston, 1981). e time has come to at least revisit
the scientically sound research on the role victims’ play
in crime, and seek to retrieve non-judgmental, objective
observations that inform ways to prevent crime, rather
than fuel assertions of blame. It might also be time to
re-visit the ‘blame worthiness’ of those who have vested
interests, such as secondary victims, and governments
that refuse or fail to act in evidence-based ways to protect
citizens from becoming victims of crime.
Nearly forty years ago, Karmen (1980) argued that
victimology can “inform sound strategies of crime
prevention” (p.172) and could do so insightfully without
immediate victim-blaming. While not ignoring the early
victimologists’ theories – the duet, the penal couple, the
doer-suerer – that drew attention only on the ‘criminal’
and the ‘victimal’, he proposed that those seeking to
prevent crime should also turn their attention to secondary
victims who are largely responsible for the plight of the
victimal (that is the immediate victim). In relation to
motor vehicle the, for example, Karmen (1980) dened
the car manufacturers, the insurers, and the salvagers (or
wreckers) as secondary victims. He explained that these
victims are oen active in the criminogenic setting, which
is inuenced by their priorities, such as the pursuit of
high prot at low risk for them, rather than protecting
the victimal. In the context of planning to prevent crime,
Karmen’s explanation is relevant to Cliord’s (1976)
assertion that crime prevention planners should always
consider who benets from an intervention and be
mindful of vested interests.
South Australia also ran an ‘End Domestic Violence’
(NDV) project (Millbank, Riches & Prior, 2000). e
NDV Project was a partnership between the Attorney-
General’s Crime Prevention Unit, the police e Child and
Family Investigation Unit and locally based domestic
violence service providers. e aim is to prevent domestic
violence, especially repetition of domestic violence.
e NDV Project was grounded on routine activity
theory (Cohen & Felson, 1979), which identies three
elements for crime to occur: victim suitability; lack of
guardianship; and motivated oender. To prevent crime,
it is necessary to focus on one or more of these elements.
e NDV Project focused on the decreasing victim
suitability victim and demotivating the oender. A series
of progressive measures of intervention were used to
protect the victim from repeat violence or abuse and to
constrain the oender’s future violence or abuse.
An active-evaluation methodology was used to
monitor and evaluate the project. ere was, for instance,
ongoing monitoring to collect data on whether calls to
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local service providers increased, decreased, or remained
stable, because of the NDV project. Aer 427 police-
attended incidents, and four months aer the project
became operational, there was no discernible increase.
Furthermore, service providers indicated strong support
for the project, as did victims. Service providers and
victims were particularly supportive of the steps taken to
hold oenders’ accountable and to avoid victim-blaming.
In addition, active referrals by police saw more victims
being oered support services.
5. Victim Assistance as a Central
Element in Preventive
Programmes
Active referrals are crucial otherwise victims could end
up ‘ensnared in a service referral maze’ that does not
necessarily meet their needs (Lucken, 1999, p. 147) and
may ‘inhibit victims’ coping and readjustment in the
aermath of crime victimisation’ (Cook, David & Grant,
1999, p. 40). van Dijk (1999, p. 5) warns that ‘vested
professionals’ might foster a ‘culture of therapeutics’, while
Fattah (1999) says zealots in the victim industry might
be causing more harm than good. Helpers’ biases and
misconceptions, for instance, can seriously undermine
the therapeutic value of victim-oriented interventions
and unskilled support workers can cause secondary
victimisation (Winkel, Blaauw & Wiseman, 1999). In
addition, the ecacy of many of the interventions oered
to victims is unknown, which might explain why a USA
study and a comparative German– USA study found a
signicant mismatch between crime victims’ needs and
the types of support oered by many victim assistance
organisations.
As well situational measures since the 1990s, social
measures have gained greater attention. e social
development method of prevention begins from the early
childhood and continues till adolescence and youth. e
ecological approach that focuses on development phases
and key transition points from birth to infancy, infancy
to adolescences, youth to adulthood is a prime example.
Of particular concern is the need to ameliorate the risk
factors that increase the ‘probability’ of the onset of anti-
social and/or criminal behaviour to verses the need to
buttress the protective factors that reduce such probability
(O’Connell, 1999).
In 2000, the South Australia Attorney-General
launched the Domestic Violence Prevention Fund Grant
Programme, which made $100,000 available through the
Crime Prevention Unit, for up to four early intervention
and prevention projects. e funds were tied to crime-
prevention programmes that aimed to help children
and young people address both the short and long-
term eects on them of their experiences of domestic
violence within their families. ough early indicators
suggested positive outcomes, these programmes were not
satisfactorily evaluated. Relevant to this chapter, however,
is the integration of prevention and victim assistance.
Agencies other than the police have striven to improve
their activities that have the potential to reduce crime.
Oen, however, crime prevention is not the primary
aim of those activities. School-based programmes are
not commonly identied as crime prevention for worry
that students who participate in the programmes could
be labelled as ‘potential’ criminals, thus stigmatised
(O’Connell, 2002; Edwards, Carr, Hudson, Harris,
O’Connell & Mathews, 2001).
6. Preventing Crime– A Priority to
Preventing Victimisation
Returning to the main theme of this article- crime
prevention must be taken seriously. Moreover, as
Professor Ben Matthews (2021) in Australia recently
wrote, “prioritising prevention is an absolute moral
imperative”. An ecient and eective way of directing
crime prevention eort would be to concentrate upon
those who have already been victimised (Farrel &
Pease, 1993). is would entail, as illustrated above, an
integration of victim assistance and crime prevention
services. Preventative eorts should not only reduce
crime but also reduce victimisation and, whenever
practical and ethical, alleviate the extraordinary suering
victims endure.
Multiple actions are required. From a victim-centric
perspective, there is in many nations an urgent need
for increases in crisis intervention, support services
that match victims’ needs, and investment in workforce
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capacity for those tasked with assisting people who
become victims of crime.
ough immediate action is required, we should
acknowledge that the gains might not be immediate but
long-term (O’Connell, 2020). Governments, business,
and civil society accompanied by victims themselves
must stay the course (Waller, 2019).
6.1 Steps that should be taken to Prevent
People becoming Victims of Crime
So, what needs to be done? Genuine political willis
crucial is we are to meet our crime prevention objectives
(Bakhtawar, 2020). Contrary, without it we are likely to
be locked into cycles of short-term, piecemeal eorts
– with changes made as governments change rather
than for empirically sound, plausible reasons. Multi-
partisan commitment, spanning government, business,
and civil society (including faith-based organisations)
action is achievable albeit challenging (O’Connell,
2020). Matthews (2021) states that governments
should take the lead by quarantining investment
as they do elsewhere, for example, their defence
budgets.
In South Australia, the Government runs a dedicated
Victims of Crime Fund to cover the costs of state-funded
victim compensation and to make grants to victim support
services. Money from the fund can also be used to pay for
crime prevention programmes that also prevent criminal
victimisation. As well in South Australia, applicants
for crime prevention grants were required to address
certain factors, including reducing victimisation, and the
Assessment Panel to determine the successful applicants
included the Commissioner for Victims’ Rights. Over
the years that the grants programme ran, several victim
support organisations attained grants to tackle domestic
violence in remote Aboriginal communities, child sexual
abuse in a regional area and road trauma (in particular
reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries as well
as the impact of collisions on roads). A youth agency was
awarded a grant to develop and implement an art therapy
programme for detained young oenders. rough art
and therapy, young oenders explored their crimes and
the harm done. Many of the young oenders developed
empathy for the victims of their crimes but the evaluation
fell short of establishing whether the programme had a
preventative outcome.
In accordance with section 15 of the Victims of Crime
Act 2001, several Attorneys-General in South Australia
have established a Victims of Crime Ministerial Advisory
Committee. In 2005, the Hon. Michael Atkinson
appointed the former Police Commissioner, David Hunt,
to chair the committee and he tasked the Commissioner
for Victims’ Rights, as an ex ocio member, to be the
administrative ocer. e committee members also
included a representative for the Victim Support Service,
for families bereaved by homicide and a representative
for victims of road trauma. e committee reported that
it favoured preventing victimisation by implementing
a ‘values-based’ approach to crime prevention. e
committee engaged the Attorneys-General Department
to conduct an audit of crime prevention programmes,
which produced an inventory of almost 120 programmes.
ose programmes in health sector, such as child and
adolescent protection, tended to have the greater focus
on preventing victimisation, whereas those in the youth
sector tended to have the greater focus on preventing
the onset of criminal behaviour or reducing recidivism.
Aspects of victim assistance featured in many of the
programmes across all sectors.
6.2 e ree Dimensions of Crime
Prevention
A comprehensive plan to prevent crime incorporates
all three dimensions of prevention: primary, secondary,
and tertiary (Dirga, 2021; Matthews, 2021; Cliord,
1976). Strategies to prevent crime at the primary or
population level should serve as the foundation of our
preventive eorts (O’Connell, 2020), is includes
concrete steps to attain several of the SDGs, such as
ameliorating structural gender inequality, making
education freely available to all, redressing the norms that
tolerate violence, and improving social determinants of
health. Access to aordable housing, provision of decent
work and adequate healthcare, as well as paying proper
attention to legacies of abuse of power, such as slavery and
colonisation, plus the resultant intergenerational trauma
are some of the initiatives that come to mind and have a
sense of universality.
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Strategies to prevent criminal victimisation in high-
risk populations (that is secondary prevention) must also
be a priority. Macro, meso and individual factors intersect
to increase the risk of both becoming a perpetrator
of crime and a victim of crime (O’Connell, 2020).
Like primary crime prevention, secondary level crime
prevention should both respond to crime and mitigate its
adverse impacts. In relation to victims, adequate services
for those most in need require greater investment.
Competent victim assistance is crucial for those ‘at risk’
peoples (O’Connell, 2020). Victims of crime are entitled to
practical, material, medical, psychological, and nancial
assistance that meets their needs; yet, despite increased
need, victim assistance in some nations has become the
victim of austerity measures.
omas Burrows (2021) pointed out, that criminal
justice practitioners, especially the police, should
undertake like training and education on crime prevention
and preventing victimisation. He urged a paradigm
shi from police as crime-ghters to police as service-
providers. e police as the rst responder play a critical
role in shaping victims’ perceptions of the criminal justice
system (O’Connell, 2009). ey are central to fullling
victims’ procedural rights. ere are dierent approaches
to victim-centricity in policing (Muir, 1986; see also
O’Connell, 2009; O’Connell & Hayes, 2019).
Police as service-providers could provide victim
assistance, such as crisis intervention, case information,
property return, victim impact statements, nancial aid,
referrals, witness services, and transportation. Victim
assistance could be delivered by a specialist unit, by
dedicated sta in each major police station, or generically
through all ocers, or a combination based on the type of
crime or category of victims. e police might establish
an advisory board, with victims among the members, to
guide initially the necessary transition in policing and
forge necessary partnerships, and to monitor responses
to victims for the purpose of preventing secondary
victimisation.
ose who work in the victim assistance eld should
also be properly trained and educated (O’Connell, 2020)
ey must be trauma-informed, culturally competent
and they must engage in the least-intrusive interventions
wherever possible (Pemberton, 2010a, 2010b; Letschert &
Pemberton, 2008). e ecacy of training and education
courses for those who encounter victims should be proven
by methodologically sound evaluations (Wyatt & Harris,
1999).
Regarding tertiary approaches to crime prevention,
research on recidivism and desistance show the value
of tailored rehabilitative programmes for perpetrators
of much conventional crime. Programmes can focus
on internal change and or external change. ese
programmes can be coupled with programmes that
focus on de-stigmatisation. Research shows some of
these programmes either alone or linked are promising
in relation to deterring perpetrators reoending, hence
reducing crime (O’Connell, 2020)
In the victimological eld, problem-solving
courts have attracted some attention. In keeping with
international developments in the late 1990s, South
Australia established a Violence Intervention Programme
(VIP) based in the Magistrates Court (that is a court of
summary jurisdiction) to improve court-led responses
to domestic violence. Collaboration between the police,
the Magistrates Courts, Correctional Services and victim
assistance services for women, children and men was
central to the operation of the VIP. e VIP brought
together victim perspectives, programmes for perpetrators
and tailored responses from the criminal justice system.
A key feature was the attendance of a victim assistance
worker to provide support and information to victims
(mostly women) who were applying for anti-violence
(restraining) orders whenever the Magistrates Court
sat as a dedicated domestic violence court. A children’s
worker would also give voice to the children and report
on their safety issues e Court regarded engagement
with victims and children as important. e protection
of victims and children was a paramount consideration.
e VIP was reviewed in 2001. ough it was noted
that the VIP required further development in relation
to funding and service agreements, and training and
management structures, the Review found that overall,
the VIP was a “highly successful, collaborative and
innovative [programme] in reducing domestic violence”
(Justice Portfolio undated submission).
While some victims are wedded to retributive justice;
others see value in restorative practices, including those
that bring them in direct contact with perpetrators
(O’Connell & Hayes, 2019). It is apt to point out that
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victims’ expression of their emotions and their demands
for justice are sometimes confused with vengeance.
Notwithstanding, whatever approach to justice, it is
incumbent on the government and its institutions to
maintain the faith of the public, including victims, in the
justice system.
6.3 Reticence towards Crime Prevention
What might be done to overcome reticence in relation
to participating in crime prevention activities? Crime
can lead individuals to perceive a loss of control in their
lives. As victims, they may feel helpless and powerless.
Psychological research suggests that victimisation can
increase apathy due to loss of self-esteem and social
cohesion. Some victims may engage in self-derogation to
resolve the cognitive dissonance that occurs when they
cannot explain their circumstance, which helps them to
cope with the notion that their suering could happen to
innocent people.
An attempt to counter victims’ sense of helpless and
perceived vulnerability was made in South Australia under
its Crime Prevention Strategy (Crime Prevention Policy
Unit, 1989a; 1989b). e strategy’s messaging promoted
the concept that individuals can maintain a safe, good
quality lifestyle by becoming involved in preventing their
re-victimisation and more broadly crime prevention. An
evaluation, however, called into question core elements of
the strategy, not because they were conceptually awed
but rather because of politics surrounding the strategy’s
implementation and the lack of resources directed
towards populous initiatives rather than evidence-led
initiatives (Sutton, Cherney & White, 2014).
6.4 e Ingredients of a Victim-Centric
approach to Crime Prevention
If crime prevention strategies are to address the needs
of victims and respect victims’ rights, they must, wrote
Schneider, 1985, p15), “inform potential victims about
criminal techniques, diminish or eliminate victim
proneness, reduce the number of victimogenic situations
and analyse times and places of victimisation to prevent
victim concentrations”. Schneider’s words suggest crime
prevention initiatives are more eective at the crime
causation stage of the ‘victimisation process’, however,
as suggested earlier in this chapter, the accessibility,
eectiveness and ecacy of victim assistance, such as
victim support services, provided in the immediate
aermath of crime and in the long-term are also
crucial elements if crime is to be prevented. us, in
truly comprehensive crime prevention, victimisation
prevention strategy, it is necessary to:
• Enhance understanding of the factors that increase
the risk of criminal victimisation and make
‘potential’ oenders more likely to oend.
• Build the capacity within mainstream services,
such as the police and generic victim support
services, and specialist services, such as domestic
violence and sexual assault services, to identify
and respond in ways that match victims’ needs.
• Improve the accessibility and increase the reach
of victim assistance to ensure victims are safe and
supports their safety and wellbeing throughout the
victimisation process and for as long as needed.
7. Preventing Crime and
Preventing Victimisation:
Same, Same but also Dierent
In conclusion, a plethora of feelings of injustice, a sense of
being forgotten, and the incidence of criminal victimisation
may fairly be factors that drove increasing concern with
victims’ rights, such as their right to be protected and
their right to assistance. is concern has run parallel
with the burgeoning interest in crime prevention and
consequently reducing victimisation. Victims of crime
have a natural interest in preventing themselves and their
families becoming victims again or their property, such as
their homes, being re-victimised. Research suggests that
victims of crime do act on crime prevention advice more
readily than do non-crime victims; however, research also
reveals a disparity in relation to which victims have the
capacity to act on such advice.
A comprehensive approach to planning to prevent
crime and actually preventing it as well as reducing its
adverse eects must be multi-faceted (Pittaro, 2019) and
implemented in aniterative manner, so that adaptations
can be made (O’Connell, 2020). e plan should provide
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Global Advances in Victimology and Psychological StudiesVol 1 (1) | June 2022 |
16
for rigorous measurement of the prevalence of crime,
and for the monitoring so we can see if our strategies
are making a dierence and for whom (Cliord, 1976).
Reliable, nuanced data are also essential to inform
prevention policy and practice.
Armed with the knowledge on what factors inuence
the likelihood of crime, eorts must be directed
accordingly (for example, providing intensive supports
to those with greatest need, whether they are potential
perpetrators or potential victims, or both).
ere should be proper investment in eective
programs to respond to and reduce crime. And these
programmes should be informed by the evidence-base
and be collaboratively designed to suit local context and
priorities.
It is necessary to mobilise multi sectoral talent,
engage decision-makers and rally funders, and ensure
that the promises to prevent crime are implemented,
monitored, and evaluated (Waller, 2019). ere must be
adequate governance procedures to hold those encharged
with preventing crime accountable (Homel, 2006).
Furthermore, like our eorts to prevent the onset of
criminal behaviour, there still must be reform criminal
justice systems, so they contribute to prevention, as
well as detection and sanctioning wrong doings, such
as crime. Laws that govern our justice systems, like our
plans to prevent crime, should be properly designed and
implemented as intended. Research in the victimological
eld, for instance, shows reform faces many challenges
(O’Connell, 2015; O’Connell & Hayes, 2019).
e principles in the Declaration of Basic Principles
of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power have
inuenced almost all victim-centric policies and practices
since 1985. ese principles have been replicated or
reformulated in other international law (for example, the
UNTOC and its Protocols and the UNCAC). Likewise,
the principles are fundamental to the proposed model
legislation to protect victims of terrorism. Importantly, the
Declaration’s preamble commits nations to prevent crime
and protect victims (including preventing secondary
victimisation).
Sometimes, however, crime prevention programmes
have unintended by-products, such as victim-blaming
that occurs when the victim of a crime is held entirely
or partially culpable for the harm that befell him or her
(O’Connell, 2020). ough in a clinical, scientic context
exploring the role of the victim in crime captivates some
researchers; many victim support workers assert that
crime prevention programmes ought to mitigate victim
blaming, rather than fuel it.
Despite the remarkable pace of legislative reforms
and administrative proclamations, the implementation
of victim-centric reforms in too many countries has been
patchy, so the promise to improve access to justice and
treatment, for instance, has not been met for all victims.
Reforms have, alas, typically followed convoluted paths.
We should strive towards a victim-centricity in the
administration of justice, without unduly negating the
presumption of innocence and other tenets of the ‘rule
of law’. Laws should be fair, clear and co-extensive with
the triangulation of the victim’s, the perpetrator’s and
society’s interests. Similarly, this triangulation must
feature in preventive eorts.
Victims and their needs must be a constant item on
the crime prevention agenda. e scale of harm they
endure must be a prominent as a motivator to be smart
on crime prevention (Waller, 2019) and smart on justice1.
Crime prevention and victim assistance: dierent but also
in many ways the same.
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