Victimology

• victimology


  -the study of victims

  
  

  -victims are now considered the consumers of the criminal justice system, they are the consumers through the following: victim surveys to judge the CJS

  -victim support services

  -involvement of victims in the process of justice
• national crime recording standard 2002

  -introduced due to inconsistencies in interpretations of crime recording rules by different police forces

  -aims to be victim focused
• definition of victims - united nations

  -a person who suffers physical, mental/psychological harm, economic loss/impairments of their rights through acts that violate law
• traditional view of victims

  -weak

  -innocent

  -blameless

  -vulnerable
• media view of victims

  -female

  -white

  -middle class

  -innocent
• statistical view of victims

  -male

  -19-28 years old (young)

  -ethnic minorities
• statistics


  -homicide victims 2023: 30% female; 70% male

  
  

  -sexual offences victims 2023: 84% female; 16% male

  
  

  -101,906 victims of hate crime

  
  

  -70% of hate crime is based on race

  
  

  -8,241 victims of crime due to their religion
• patterns of victimisation - social class

  working-class: more likely to be victims

  
  

  middle-class: more likely to fear being victims

  
  

  upper-class: most likely to report crime & have it investigated
• patterns of victimisation - age

  infants are at the most risk of being murdered

  
  

  teens are the most likely to be victims of violence, sexual offences & theft

  
  

  elderly people are more likely to be victims of abuse
• patterns of victimisation - gender

  males are more likely to be victims of homicide e.g., more likely to put themselves in violent situations

  
  

  women are more at risk of sexual offences & domestic abuse (AO3 with dark figure of crime)
• patterns of victimisation - ethnicity

  ethnic minorities are more likely to be victims, especially people with a mixed background

  
  

  106,000 hate crimes per year (Home Office) - AO3 with dark figure of crime & progress towards some equality
• patterns of victimisation - sexuality

  males are more at risk of homophobic crime; females are more at risk of transphobic crime

  
  

  victims are on average 25-47 & mostly face harassment

  
  

  perpetrators are typically men, white & on average 39-50
• social construction of victimisation

  -unreported crime: may fear reporting, may have shame, may not care

  
  

  -people may not know that they are a victim

  
  

  -people refuse to accept the label of victim

  
  

  -are denied the label of victim

  
  

  -victims are socially constructed (Christie)

  
  

  AO3:

  -male victims of rape show social construction of victimisation as many male victims are denied the label of victim - rape victims are expected to be women which further shows the social construction
• impact of victimisation - Hoyle (2012)

  -anger

  -anxiety

  -depression

  -withdrawal

  -shock

  -panic

  -PTSD

  -disrupted sleep

  -poor health

  & more
• impact of victimisation - Walklate

  secondary victimisation (victim blaming) - can be seen in following cases:

  -court cases

  -rape trials

  -honour crime
• explanations of victimisation: positivist victimology - Miers (1989)

  3 features of positivist victimology

  
  

  -aims to identify factors that produce patterns of victimisation e.g., age/gender

  
  

  -focus on interpersonal crimes of violence

  
  

  -aims to identify victims that have contributed to their own victimisation
• explanations of victimisation: positivist victimology - Hentig

  Victim typology

  -identified 13 characteristics of victims, some of these involve sex (female); old; mentally subnormal; lonely; heartbroken
• explanations of victimisation: positivist victimology - Wolfgang

  Victim precipitation

  -victims trigger the events that lead to the crime

  -found in research that 26% of 588 homicides were triggered by the victim as they were the first to use violence

  -use of case studies in America

  
  

  AO3:

  victim blaming
• explanations of victimisation: positivist victimology - Tierney

  Victim proneness

  -positivist victimology focuses on researching characteristics that make people more prone/likely to be victims
• explanations of victimisation: radical/critical victimology - Mawby & Walklate

  structural powerlessness

  -structural factors like the patriarchy and poverty put the powerless at greater risk of being victims
• explanations of victimisation: radical/critical victimology - Tombs & Whyte

  the hierarchy of victimisation/social construction of victims

  -victims are viewed differently - some may be seen as victims whilst others may not

  -example: Madeline McCann was seen as more of a victim compared to others
• explanations of victimisation - AO3

  -victim blaming

  
  

  -some research relies on quantitative methods

  -reductionist

  
  

  -positivist victimology ignores crimes where people do not realise that they're victims

  
  

  -positivist victimology ignores the wider structural causes of victimhood

  
  

  -radical/critical victimology reveals the role of the powerful in victimhood and shows the social construction of victimhood
• explanations of victimisation: radical/critical victimology - labelling

  -the state determines who does and who does not get given the label of a victim

  -example: the police not going through with cases of domestic violence which denies the victims their label