victimology

• positivist victimology

  • identify factors that produce patterns - what makes individuals or group more likely to be victims
  • focus interpersonal crimes
  • identify victims who have contributed to own victimology
  • victim proneness- social and psychological characteristic which make more prone to victimization
  • wolf Gard study homicides- 26% involved victim precipitation
  • women, ethnic minorities, poor and homeless
  • victim blaming, collates all experiences, ignores wider structural factors
• critical victimology

  • whether person is regarded as a victim depends on the power structure that underpin society and therefore is socially constructed
  • focus on structural factors e.g. patriarchy
  • safety crimes- explained away, creating victim status
  • ideological functions delabelling- powerful denies powerless victim status
  • hierarchy of victimisation
  • some considered more news worthy by media e.g. madeline macan
  • 66% female rape cases never go to police
• gender and victimisation

  • 10x women reported being sexually assaulted
  • 8% women who experience sexual assault report to police
• ethnicity and victimisation

  • 54,000 racist incidents
  • denied victim status due to institutional racism- 3x likely arrested
• social class and victimisation

  • highest crime rates in areas of deprivation and unemployment
  • homeless people 12x more likely to experience violence
• age and victimisation

  • most risk being murdered are infants under 1
  • old- less visible e.g. nursing homes, become dependent
  • risk declines with age