A BRITISH police force has cut burglary levels by 35 per cent after using a crime prevention strategy based on "repeat victimisation", which recognises that a small number of people suffer a large proportion of the crime in any given area.
Prof Sylvia Chenery of the University of Huddersfield, Yorkshire, said studies showed almost 60 per cent of homes were never burgled, while about 20 per cent were burgled once and 4.3 per cent were burgled five times or more. And 43 per cent of burglaries were suffered by that 4.3 per cent of the population.
The Huddersfield police focused on the people suffering most burglaries. Det Supt John Holt said when a burglar was choosing a target, it made sense for him to break into a house be had successfully burgled before because he had got in the last time.
Police who used to reassure victims by saying "don't worry, lightning doesn't strike twice" were now instructed to say: "Let's make it more difficult for the criminals to strike again."
Police and local council co operated to ensure windows and doors of burgled homes were immediately repaired and secured. In some cases, alarms were installed, while surveillance cameras or regular police patrols kept an eye on buildings for six weeks after they were burgled. The immediate neighbours of burglary victims were asked to be alert to anything suspicious.
Focusing crime prevention on a small number of homes in this way led to a fall in burglaries almost every month over two years, Mr Holt said. The West Yorkshire Police reported 853 burglaries in Huddersfield between January and March of this year, compared with 1,314 for the same three months of 1994.