9.4 Victims

• Positivist Victimology

  (Miers)

  aims to identify the factors that create patterns in victimisation

  focuses on interpersonal crimes of violence

  aims to identify victims that have contributed to their own victimisation
• Example of positive victimology

  (Wolfgang)

  studied 588 homocides in philadelphia and found 26% involved victim precipitation - the victim triggered the events leading to the homocide eg. being the first to use violence
• What did ____ say to criticise Wolfgang?

  (Brookman)

  shows the importance of victim-offender relationships and the presence of chance in homocides HOWEVER ignores wider structural factors that influence victimisation such as poverty and patriarchy

  is very easily turned into victim blaming
• Critical victimology

  based on conflict theories such as marxism and feminism

  structural factors - eg. poverty and patriarchy which place powerless groups at greater risk of victimisation

  mawby + walklate - victimisation is a form of structural powerlessness

  the state's power to deny or attach the label of victim - victim is a social construct as is criminal, and the criminal justice system is at liberty to apply or rescind the label eg. by choosing to not press charges or convict a criminal
• What did ____ say about critical victimology & labels?

  (tombs + whyte) safety crimes in which employers' violations of the law lead to injury or death of workers are often explained away as the fault of accident-prone workers

  similar pattern in rape cases where the victim is both denied their victim status and blamed for the assault

  this 'failure to label' serves the ideological function of concealing the true extent of victimisation and so hiding the crimes of the powerful
• Evaluation of critical victimology

  valuable in drawing attention to the socially constructed natue of the victim label and how the ruling groups use this to manipulate the psoition of victims HOWEVER

  disregards instances in which victims genuinely bring victimisation upon themselves eg. initiating violence
• Class & victimisation

  poorest groups are more likely to be victimised

  crime rates are highest in areas with high unemployment rates and deprivation

  (newburn + rock) study of 300 homeless people that found they were 12x more likely to experience violence and one in 10 had been urinated on
• Age & victimisation

  younger people are the most at risk of victimisation

  infants under one are at the highest risk of being murdered

  teenagers are more vulnerable to offences including assault, sexual harrassment, theft and abuse in the home

  there is also a risk of the elderly being abused in care homes but the overall trend is still that victimisation decreases with age
• Ethnicity & victimisation

  minority ethnic groups are at a greater risk of being victims of general crime, as well as racially motivated crime

  they are also among the groups who are most likely to report feeling under-protected yet over-controlled by police

  links to recent instances of police violence against black people like stephen lawrence, george floyd and mark duggan, as well as the pattern of stop and search implementation
• Gender & victimisation

  only trait which leads to two simultaneous trends in victimisation

  men are at greater risk of being victims to violent attacks, particularly by strangers

  90% of homicide victims are male

  women are more likely to be victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault, stalking and harrassment, trafficking and in times of conflict, mass rape
• Repeat victimisation

  if you have been a victim of crime once you are very likely to be one again

  british crime survey - 4% of the population are victims of 44% of crimes within a year, and 60% of the population aren't victim to any crimes
• Impact of victimisation

  crime can have serious emotional and physical impacts

  depending on the crime

  victims can experience disrupted sleep, difficulties in social functioning and feelings of helplessness

  waves of harm - hate crimes can be message crimes which intimidate the whole community and challenge society's value system

  secondary victimisation
• Secondary victimisation

  individuals may suffer further harm at the hands of the criminal justice system during the investigation and prosecution of crimes

  feminists argue that rape cases are so poorly handled by the police and court systems that it amounts to double victimisation

  the baroness casey review of the metropolitan police

  the volume of rape trials reaching court has decreased by 57% since 2014
• Fear of victimisation

  crime often creates a fear of becoming a victim

  some sociological surveys show this to be irrational

  women are more afraid of going out for fear of being attacked, but young men are more likely to become victims

  feminists suggest this focuses on women's passivity and psychological state when we should instead focus on their safety eg. the structural threat of patriarchal violence