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Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics Profile Series
Multiple Victimization in Canada, 2004
Multiple incidents of household victimization
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The risk factors associated with household victimization differ from those identified for victims of violent offences. While violent crimes are analysed by socio-demographic characteristics of the victim, the analytical perspective is different when considering property crimes. Property crimes such as break and enter, vehicle thefts and vandalism are associated with the attractiveness of the household or property to the offender, particularly the location of the residence (urban or rural area), type of dwelling, home ownership or rental, household income and household size (Gannon and Mihorean, 2005) (Table 3). In Table 3, these characteristics are presented, as well as the corresponding proportion of households that were victimized.
Quebec households experience fewer multiple victimizations
In 2004, a larger proportion of households in the Prairies and British Columbia recorded property related victimization. Furthermore, these provinces also had the highest percentage of multiple property victimizations. Roughly one third households that were victimized were victimized more than once. Police data also showed that the Western provinces had the highest rates of property crimes in 2004 (Sauvé, 2005). Multiple household victimizations were less frequent in Quebec as well as in the Atlantic provinces. In Quebec, among the households that were victimized, 13% were victimized more than once.
Residential neighbourhood characteristics influence the risk of multiple victimizations against the household
Several neighbourhood characteristics were associated with a greater risk of households experiencing multiple property related incidents. For example, households were more likely to be victimized more than once during the 12 months prior to the survey in urban areas and in neighbourhoods where the proportion of single-parent families was higher or where the proportion of persons in families with incomes below the low-income cut-off (LICO) was higher.
Among those households located in neighbourhoods where the proportion of single-parent families was higher and that had been victims of a property crime during the 12 months prior to the survey, 28% had been victimized at least twice. Essentially the same percentage of victimized households located in neighbourhoods where the proportion of persons living in families with an income below the LICO was high had experienced multiple property victimizations.
Table 3 Household characteristics, by number of victimizations, 2004
High-income households are more at risk of victimization
Household income can be an indicator of the quantity and value of the goods in a residence, making the potential financial gain from these households more attractive to offenders (Taylor-Butts, 2009). Thus, the percentage of households victimized increased with household income. Nearly one in four households with a income above $100,000 experienced a property crime and nearly 6% were victimized more than once during the past 12 months. In comparison a smaller proportion of households with incomes below $15,000 reported at least one property crime (8%) and 3% reported more than one property crime incident. However, even if a greater proportion of households with an income above $100,000 were victims of multiple property crimes compared to households with an income below $15,000, once victimized, the latter were more at risk of being victimized again. Nearly 30% of households with an income below $15,000 that were victimized were victimized more than once, compared to 24% of households with an income above $100,000.
A multivariate analysis was conducted to determine which risk factors were the most significant among those households that experienced multiple victimizations. In contrast to the results for violent victimization, it appears that certain factors increases the risk of a household being victimized multiple times rather than once. The household's location, income, type of dwelling and the proportion of people living in low-income families in the neighbourhood are all predictors of household multiple victimization. Households in the Prairies and in British Columbia were 3 times more likely than households in Quebec to experience multiple property crimes (Table 4 in the appendix). Moreover, the multivariate analysis revealed that, although a greater proportion of households with incomes above $100,000 were victimized more than once, households with incomes below $50,000, when victimized, were more at risk of being victimized again.
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