Gang members are hundreds of times more likely to be victims of violence than members of the public, according to a pioneering study using Thames Valley crime statistics.

The findings from groundbreaking analysis of 16 years of crime statistics in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire show that gang members who commit a crime with another member are 56 times more likely to become a victim of gang violence, usually at the hands of their former partner-in-crime.

Having harassed a gang member or associate increased the odds of becoming a victim of violence crime by a factor of 243, while those who had attacked someone in the network were 479 times more likely to become victims of violence themselves.

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Gang members who previously offended together are likely to end up attacking one another.

The study by Cambridge University criminologists also revealed cycles of ‘escalating violence’ within the criminal underworld of Thames Valley.

Organised crime group members who harass other members are far more likely to become victims of violence, primarily from those they harassed.

Dr Paolo Campana, of Cambridge's Institute of Criminology, said: "Our work shows the importance of taking relationships into account when developing policing risk factors and 'red flags'.

"These techniques could help police identify at an earlier stage the social networks set to spiral into violence."

Simply having a record of criminal violence, or of hard drugs offences, was found to have no significant effect on the potential for future violence, according to the findings.

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Dr Campana said: "It often comes down to tit-for-tat retaliation that generates circuits of violence.

"In the Thames Valley data we can see how prior co-offending relationships turn sour and become a mechanism for further violence. Harassment within criminal networks also dramatically increases the potential for violence.”

The study used anonymised records from Thames Valley Police between 2000 and 2016 to build a model of how organised crime networks work across the region.

The average size of an organised gang was five or six members, although the largest numbered 21.

Gang members were overwhelmingly male - 93 per cent - and most had been active in drug dealing. Just over half had been involved in a violent act and a quarter had been a victim of violence.

The few female members were twice as likely as male members to be victims of violence. This was despite researchers removing incidents related to domestic violence.

The Cambridge researchers were now working with police in Cambridgeshire and Merseyside to analyse more crime data.

The findings were published in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology.

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