3.4 victimology Flashcards
How does the United Nations define victims?
- those who have suffered harm through acts/omissions that violate the laws of the state
According to Nils Christie, what is the definition of ‘victim’?
- it is a social construct
- there is a stereotype of the ‘ideal victim’ favoured by the media, the public and the CJS - a weak, innocent and blameless individual who is the target of a stranger’s attack
Why is it important to study victims?
- they play an essential role in the CJS process
What are the three features of positivist victimology?
- identifies the factors that produce patterns in victimisation
- focus on interpersonal crimes of violence
- identifies victims who have contributed to their own victimisation
What is meant by victim proneness?
- identifies the characteristics of individuals/groups that make them more vulnerable to victimisation
What did Hans von Hentig discover in his 1948 study?
- identified 13 characteristics that made someone more prone to victimisation e.g. female, elderly, mentally ‘subnormal’
What is the implication of von Hentig’s study?
- somehow victims ‘invite’ victimisation by being the kind of person they are
What is meant by victim precipitation?
- victims that are actively involved in their victimisation
What did Marvin Wolfgang’s 1958 study of homicide show?
- 25% of the homicides in Philadelphia involved victim precipitation, the victim triggered the events leading to the homicide
- suggests that somehow the victim caused the incident
What are some criticisms o positivist victimology?
- Fiona Brookman: it is a matter of chance which party becomes the victim
- it ignores the wider structural factors influencing victimisation e.g. poverty and patriarchy
- it can easily tip over into victim blaming
- ignores situations where victims are unaware of their victimisation and where harm is done but no law is broken
Which theories is critical victimology based on?
- Marxism and Feminism
How does critical victimology argue structural factors impacts victimisation?
- structural factors such as poverty and patriarchy, place powerless groups at greater risk of victmisation
How does critical victimology argue the state impacts victimisation?
- the state’s power to apply or deny the label of victim = through the CJS process, the state applies the label of victim to some but witholds it from others
- the concept of a victim is a social construct, the police decide when and where to press charges
According to Tombs and Whyte, why do ‘safety crimes’ often deny people victim status?
- victims of corporate crimes such as lack of Health and Safety regulations often blame themselves for being negligent
- they are both denioed the official victim status and are blamed for their fate
According to Tombs and Whyte, what is the ideological function of the failure to label?
- it hides the extent of victimisation and its real causes, hides the crimes of the powerful and denies the powerless victims’ redress
What are some evaluations of critical victimology?
- it disregards the role victims may play in bringing victimisation on themselves
+ it is valuable in drawing attention to the way that the ‘victim’ status is constructed by power and how this benefits the powerful at the expense of the powerless
In what ways is victimisation a social construction?
- it depends on the attachment of the label of victim:
- there are many unreported and unrecorded victims who never come to the attention of the CJS e.g. victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault
- in some cases, like fraud, victims may not even realise that they have been victimised
- victims may refuse to accept they have been victimise
- others may reject the label of ‘victim’ as it may show them to be weak/foolish
- some are denied the status of victim because others regard them as responsible for their own victimisation
What are the patterns of victimisation based on class?
- the poorest groups are more likely to be victimised; those that are unemployed/low income/living in areas of high deprivation
- they were 12 times more likely to have experienced violence than the general population
What are the patterns of victimisation based on age?
- young men are twice as likely to become the victims of crime (19-24)
- those most at risk of being murdered are infants under 1, while teenagers are more vulnerable than adults to offences including assault, sexual harrasment, etc
What are the patterns of victimisation based on ethnicity?
- minority ethnic groups are at greater risk that white people of being victims of crime in general, as well as racially motivated crimes
- ethnic minority groups made up 23% of homicide victims (2007-2010) - twice the risk of the white population
What are the patterns of victimisation based on gender?
- males are at greater risk of becoming victims of violent attacks by strangers
- women are more likely to be victims of domestic violence
- 70% of homicide victims are male
What did Hoyle(2012) suggest were the possible effects of victimisation?
- physical harm
- financial harm
- anxiety
- anger
- fear
- disrupted sleep
- feelings of powerlessness
- fear of further victimisation
- PTSD
- shock
How might crime affect those who are not direct victims?
- crime may also create indirect victims
- hate crimes may create waves of harm, that radiate out to affect others
What is meant by secondary victimisation?
- individuals may suffer further victimisation at the hands of the CJS
