16 Victims of Crime

Question 1

Define victims

Answer 1

People who have “suffered harm, including physical or mental injury, emotional suffering, economic loss or substantial impairment of their fundamental rights, through acts or omissions that are in violation of criminal laws”

Question 2

What are the high rates of victimisation in the demographics of crime victims?

Answer 2

Urban areas (18% compared to 12%)

Property offences: young professionals

Personal victimisation: Age (16-24); single; low household income; unemployed; full-time student’ active evening life; high alcohol consumption

About 20% of the population is a victim of crime at some point in their life

Question 3

Describe what victims fear in crime?

Answer 3

Groups at highest risk of becoming crime victims are not scarily those who experience the greatest fear of crime

• Elderly and women report the highest fear
• Young males report the least fear

Question 4

What is the most feared public activity?

Answer 4

Catching the train

Question 5

How do people manage their fear of crime?

Answer 5

Strategies that increase a sense of control:

• Increase security measures at home
• In public try to avoid “unpredictable strangers”
• Go out in groups
• Monitor environment/stay alert

Question 6

What are factors that influence reporting crime?

Answer 6

• Nature of offence (*Perception that reporting will benefit victim, seriousness)
• Bystanders/support networks who encourage reporting
• Characteristics of victim are less important

Question 7

Describe the historical view of victims in early middle ages?

Answer 7

Victims or their survivors played a central role in trial proceedings and sentencing

• This ‘Golden Age’ of the victim ended with monarchs who declared that vengeance was theirs alone
• Crimes are often thought of as hostile acts against the state, rather than events that hurt a specific person

Question 8

Describe the historical view of victims in 1960s-1970s

Answer 8

1960s: criticisms that the government offered the victims little to no support, even though ostensibly the criminal justice system was established to serve them
1970s: the concept of “Blaming the Victim” recognised and popularized

Question 9

Why do we blame the victim?

Answer 9

• The fundamental attribution error
• Just-world hypothesis
• Shapes our response to victim

Question 10

What is the fundamental attribution error in blaming the victim?

Answer 10

The tendency for observers, when analyzing another’s behaviours, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition
- If we blame the personal qualities of the victim we can feel secure that the same situation won’t happen to us

Question 11

What is the Just-world hypothesis in blaming the victim?

Answer 11

The need to believe the world is fair and that people get what they deserve

• Bad people are punished
• Good people are rewarded

Question 12

What is shaping our response to the victim in blaming the victim?

Answer 12

Blaming the victim shapes our responses to victims
- The norms of our society demand that we help others that deserve our help. But if people are responsible for their own suffering, we do not feel obligated to help

Question 13

DIscuss secondary victimisation

Answer 13

• Uncertainty as to their role in the criminal justice process
• A general lack of knowledge about the criminal justice system, courtroom procedures, and legal issues
• Trial delays that result in frequent travel, missed work and wasted time
• Fear of the defendant or of retaliation from defendant’s associates
• The trauma of testifying and cross-examination
• Media - especially in homicide cases

Question 14

What are some concerns of victims?

Answer 14

The emergence of the interdisciplinary field of victimology, which concentrates on the process and consequences of victimisation experiences and how victims recover

Question 15

How have legislators (and others) responded to the concerns of crime victims?

Answer 15

1. Compensation of the crime victims
2. Participation by victims in criminal proceedings
3. Legislative changes protecting victim’s rights
4. Reconciling victims and offenders

Question 16

What does it mean by compensation of the crime victims?

Answer 16

Restitution: judge orders the defendant to compensate the victim for losses

Pros:
• Victim reimbursed
• Helps offenders appreciate how their crimes have hurt others

Cons:
• Often there is no defendant because crime isn’t solved or the defendant is acquitted
• Also, the defendant is often financially unable to reimburse the victim

Question 17

What does it mean by participation by victims in criminal proceedings?

Answer 17

Many states in AUS provide that victims have a right to be notified of and attend court proceedings and a right to make their views known, either to the prosecutor or directly to the judge

• Victims are concerned that important decisions are made without their input and knowledge
• Victim impact evidence: evidence offered at sentencing to show the impact on the victim of the crime for which the defendant has been convicted

Question 18

What does it mean by legislative changes protecting victim’s rights?

Answer 18

Laws have been made that protect victims’ rights, such as:
• To be notified of proceedings
• Not to be excluded from the trial and other proceedings
• To be heard at crucial stages such as the release of an offender, plea bargaining, and sentencing
• To be notified of the offender’s release from custody
• To be freed from unreasonable delay in the proceedings
• To receive restitution from the convicted offender
 70-90% of voters have supported such amendments

Question 19

What does it mean by reconciling victims and offenders?

Answer 19

E.g. restorative justice
- Resolution conferences, although controversial, can cause the offender to realise the victim’s pain and the victim to understand why the offender committed the crimes

Provides benefits in the areas of:
• Accountability
• Competency development
• Community safety

NSW: victim-offender conferencing

Question 20

What is accountability in reconciling victims and offenders?

Answer 20

the victim can give their story and the perpetrator has to face the person they harmed, and take responsibility for what they did

Question 21

What is competency development in reconciling victims and offenders?

Answer 21

Perpetrators learn new skills in these meetings about conflict resolution and empathy, and conversation skills

Question 22

What is community safety in reconciling victims and offenders?

Answer 22

increases safety and feelings of safety. The victim can ask why they were the victim and to know what to avoid, which is good because they may feel lost not knowing why

Question 23

What is the NSW victim-offender conferencing?

Answer 23

• Only takes place if the offender accepts responsibility for the offence and both the victim and the offender have agreed to take part
• All the participants discuss the crime and the impact that this has had on their lives. They come to an agreement about what could be done to make it better

Question 24

Discuss the psychological effects of victimisation

Answer 24

Stockholm syndrome: a paradoxical phenomenon where hostages exhibit empathy and positive regard for their captors, sometimes to the point of defending them

Acute Stress Disorder (ASD): before 1 month or post crime PTSD

• Usually, the trauma must be of sufficient severity to have threatened the victim, or someone close to the victim, with mortal danger or serious bodily harm
• Symptoms: intrusive thoughts, avoidance symptoms and hyper-arousal

Question 25

Why do only some develop PTSD?

Answer 25

Although many people experiencing severe trauma may develop ASD, most do not develop PTSD

Question 26

What do people who are at greater risk of PTSD have?

Answer 26

• A past history of trauma or previous mental illness
• Experienced an event involving deliberate harm
• Had repeated traumatic experiences
• Ongoing stressful life events after the trauma
• An absence of social support

Question 27

What are the cognitive biases of PTSD

Answer 27

• PTSD sufferers often perceive the world as a dangerous place
• They blame themselves for the event
• They often come to view themselves as helpless to deal with stressors

Question 28

Describe psychological help for victims

Answer 28

4-session prevention course evaluated:
o 10 women who had recently been raped or assaulted completed the course and were compared with 10 other similar women who did not complete course
o At 2-month and 5.5 month post-assault assessments, victims who completed the course had fewer PTSD symptoms
o Two months after the trauma, 70% of untreated women and only 10% of treated women had PTSD

Question 29

Discuss why many prefer the term survivor over victim

Answer 29

• There is a growing interesting in coping and resilience to counter the predominant focus on the destructive consequences of crime
• Has more empowered and positive connotations than the victim

Question 30

What is the traditional research on holocaust survivors/

Answer 30

Recent research on holocaust survivors: compared survivors to Jewish people not in the holocaust, and found that they were actually doing very well

-Achievement motivation
o Many successful survivors (case studies) and no different from controls on average
- Erikson’s psychological stages
o Survivors successfully completed all stages except trust vs mistrust
- Coping strategies
o Prevalence of self-control, rational problem-solving, and persistence as strategies for survival

Question 31

Take home message

Answer 31

• Historically victims have had few rights in the criminal justice system
• Responses to the concerns of crime victims include
1. Compensation of the crime victims
2. Participation by victims in criminal proceedings
3. Legislative changes protecting victims’ rights
4. Reconciling victims and offenders
• Victims of crime can be at risk of developing Stockholm syndrome, ASD or PTSD
PTSD can be prevented in some trauma victims