Risk and protective factors of stranger and acquaintance violence victimisation in England and Wales.

Violence has been fallen dramatically over the past decades. However, it is still unclear why there is an overall decline in violence in and outside the UK. The current gap in knowledge impedes violence reduction opportunities not just in the UK but across the world. To better help understand why violence has fallen over time, the current study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council Secondary Data Analysis Initiative Phase 2, examines which individual-level risk and protective factors significantly increase or decrease the risk of stranger and acquaintance violence victimisation in England and Wales. In doing so, special attention is given to the role of routine activies. This study uses rich data stemming from the Crime Survey for England & Wales (CSEW). Findings show that routine activities and lifestyles predict in important ways stranger and acquaintance violence victimisation frequency. The study underlines the importance of comparing predictors of stranger and acquaintance violence as it brings to light similarities and differences in risk and protective factors for stranger and acquaintance violence victimisation. This study also stresses the importance of examining routine activities and lifestyle when examining stranger and acquaintance violence.