Trends in violence victimisation: Incidence rates, prevalence and crime concentration of stranger and acquaintance violence.

Violence has fallen in Britain over the last two decades. To understand better why violence has fallen over time, this present paper investigates Britain’s long-term trends in different types of violence crime victimisation, including stranger and acquaintance violence. This study uses data stemming from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), which is considered one of the most reliable data source to examine crime trends. It draws on weighted data from 1992-2013/14 and examines prevalence, incidence and crime concentration trends, for victims of six specific age groups (16–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55–64 and 65–plus) and separately for males and females. The findings shed important light on differences in the trends of stranger and acquaintance violence during the recent two decades. They also reveal which violence victimised subgroups are potentially the main drivers of the decline in violence. The study emphasizes the importance of making a distinction between different violence crime types when examining violence trends. The present paper is part of a larger project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Secondary Data Analysis Initiative (SDAI) Phase 2 and continues previous ESRC, SDAI Phase 1 funded work on burglary and ESRC funded work on the international crime drop. Details of the current project as well as previous work on crime trends can be found at: www.ntu.ac.uk/apps/research/groups/4/home.aspx/project/178996/overview/violence_trends_

Violence has fallen in Britain over the last two decades. To understand better why violence has fallen over time, this present paper investigates Britain’s long-term trends in different types of violence crime victimisation, including stranger and acquaintance violence. This study uses data stemming from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), which is considered one of the most reliable data source to examine crime trends. It draws on weighted data from 1992-2013/14 and examines prevalence, incidence and crime concentration trends, for victims of six specific age groups (16–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55–64 and 65–plus) and separately for males and females. The findings shed important light on differences in the trends of stranger and acquaintance violence during the recent two decades. They also reveal which violence victimised subgroups are potentially the main drivers of the decline in violence. The study emphasizes the importance of making a distinction between different violence crime types when examining violence trends.
The present paper is part of a larger project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Secondary Data Analysis Initiative (SDAI) Phase 2 and continues previous ESRC, SDAI Phase 1 funded work on burglary and ESRC funded work on the international crime drop. Details of the current project as well as previous work on crime trends can be found at: www.ntu.ac.uk/apps/research/groups/4/home.aspx/project/178996/overview/violence_trends_