Control, Punishment and Victims Flashcards
1
Q
outline Clarke’s view on situational crime prevention
A
- Clarke: describes situational crime prevention as a ‘pre-emptive approach that relies, not on improving society of its institutions, but reducing opportunities for crime’
- this method aims to prevent crime before it happens
- he identifies 3 features of measures aimed at situational crime prevention;
1) they are directed at specific crimes
2) they involve managing or altering the immediate environment of the crime
3) they aim at increasing the effort + risks of committing crime and reducing the rewards
2
Q
outline an example of situational crime prevention
A
- e.g. target hardening measures such as;
- locking doors + windows increases the effort a burglar has to make
- increased surveillance in shops via CCTV/ security guards increase the likelihood of shoplifters being caught
3
Q
outline situational crime prevention in relation to theories
A
- underlying SCP approaches is an ‘opportunity’/ rational choice theory of crime - the view that criminals act rationally and weigh up the costs and benefits of crime opportunity before deciding whether to commit it
- this contrasts with theories of crime that focus on ‘root causes’ - e.g. criminals’ early socialisation or capitalist exploitation - which focusing on transforming the socialisation of a population/ carry out a revolution
- Clarke: most theories offer no realistic solution to crime, and so we should focus on the immediate crime situation, as this is where opportunity for prevention is greatest
4
Q
outline the New York bus terminal as an example of situational crime prevention
A
- Felson: talks about the New York City Bus Terminal and how it was poorly designed + provided opportunities for deviant conduct
- e.g. toilets allowed for luggage thefts, rough sleeping, drug dealing and sexual activity
- re-shaping this environment to ‘design crime out’ greatly reduced such activity - e.g. large sinks, which homeless people were bathing in, were replaced with small hand basins
5
Q
outline displacement as a criticism of situational crime prevention
A
- a criticism of SCP measures is that they don’t reduce crime, but displace it
- if criminals are acting rationally, presumably they will respond to target hardening by moving to where targets are softer
- Chaiken: found that a crackdown on subway robberies in NYC displaced them to the streets above
6
Q
outline the 5 types of displacement
A
1) spatial: moving elsewhere to commit crime
2) temporal: committing it at a different time
3) target: choosing a different victim
4) tactical: using a different method
5) functional: committing a different type of crime
7
Q
outline an example of the success of situational crime prevention measures
A
- in early 1960s, 1/2 of all suicides in Britain were caused by gassing - at this time, Britain’s gas supply came from highly toxic coal gas
- from the 60s, coal gas was naturally replaced by less toxic natural gas - and by 1997, suicides from gassing had fallen to near zero
- the overall suicide rate declined - not just deaths from gassing - those who might have killed themselves from gassing didn’t switch to another method - there was no displacement
8
Q
outline AO3 evaluations of situational crime prevention measures
A
- with most SCP measures. there is displacement
- this measure tends to focus on opportunistic petty street crime - ignores white collar, corporate and state crime, which are more costly + harmful
- it assumes all criminals make rational calculations which is unlikely in many violent crimes/ crimes committed under the influence of frogs/ alcohol
- ignores the root causes of crime - e.g. poverty, making it difficult to develop long term strategies for crime reduction
9
Q
outline the background of the Broken Windows theory
A
- environmental crime prevention is based on Wilson + Kelling’s influential article, ‘Broken Windows’
- Wilson + Kelling use the phrase ‘Broken Windows’ to reference all the various signs of disorder + lack of concern for others found in some neighbourhoods - e.g. noise, graffiti, begging, littering etc
- they argue that leaving broken windows unrepaired, tolerating aggressive begging etc sends out a signal that no one cares
9
Q
outline environmental crime prevention
A
- in these delinquent neighbourhoods, these is an absence of both formal social control (police) + information control (community)
- police are only concerned with serious crime + turn a blind eye to petty nuisance behaviour, whilst members of the community feel powerless
- without action, the situation deteriorates, tipping the neighbourhood into a declining spiral - respectable members move out + the area becomes a magnet for deviance
10
Q
outline zero tolerance policing
A
- Wilson + Kelling’s key idea is that disorder + the absence of controls leads to crime
- their solution is to crack down on disorder, using a 2 step strategy;
1) environmental improvement strategy; any broken windows must be repaired immediately otherwise more will follow + lead to downward spiral
2) police must adopt zero tolerance policy; instead of just reacting to a crime, they must proactively tackle the slightest sign of disorder, even is it isn’t criminal - halting neighbourhood decline + preventing serious crime taking root - ZT has been very influential globally, where it has influenced anti-social behaviour policies
10
Q
outline supporting evidence for zero tolerance policing
A
- Clean Car Program: was initiated on the subway, in which cars were taken out of service immediately if they had graffiti on them - graffiti was thus largely removed from the subway
- later, this same approach was extended to the city’s police precincts - e.g. the crackdown on ‘squeegee merchants’ discovered many had warrants for violent + property crimes
11
Q
between - (implementation of _), there was a significant fall in crime in the city, including a _% drop in the homicide rate
A
- between 1993-96 (implementation of zero tolerance policing), there was a significant fall in crime in the city, including a 50% drop in the homicide rate
11
Q
outline evidence of other factors that could alternatively causes the fall in crime (not just zero tolerance policing)
A
- NYPD gained 7,000 extra officers
- general decline in the crime rate in major US cities at the time - including ones where police didn’t implement zero tolerance
- deaths from homicides fell sharply, but attempted homicides remained high - due to improved media emergency services, not policing
12
Q
outline social and community crime prevention
A
- while Wilson + Kelling show some recognition of the community + informal controls in preventing crime, the main emphasis of their policies relates to policing
- however; social + community prevention strategies emphasise the social context of the potential offender
- they aim to remove the conditions that originally predispose individuals to crime
- these are longer term strategies, as they attempt to tackle the root causes of offending, rather than just the opportunities for crime
- many general social reform programmes address causes of crime, as crime is often rooted in social conditions such as poverty, unemployment etc - they have a crime prevention role, even if its not their main focus - e.g. policies promoting full employment
13
Q
outline the Perry pre-school project
A
- this was a community programme aimed at reducing criminality among Black children in Michigan
- they used an experimental group of 3-4yr olds of whom were offered a 2yr intellectual enrichment programme, in which children would also receive weekly home visits
- this longitudinal study followed the children’s progress + showed striking differences with a control group who hadn’t done the programme
- by age 40, the experimental group had significantly less arrests for violent, property, and drug crimes + more had graduated from high school + were in employment
- it was calculated that for every $1 spent on the programme, $17 were saved on welfare, prison + other costs
13
Q
what is neglected in the approaches for tackling crime
A
- these approaches (zero tolerance, broken windows, environmental crime prevention, situational crime prevention), focus on largely low-level crimes - they disregard crimes of the powerful + environmental crimes
- this definition of the ‘crime problem’ reflects the priorities of politicians + agencies tasked with crime prevention
- Whyte: there is no logical reason why such activities shouldn’t be included in the crime + disorder - despite their potential + actual affect on the health of local communities, they are not
13
Q
define + outline surveillance
A
- surveillance = the monitoring of public behaviour for the purposes of population or crime control - involves people’s behaviour being regulated, managed or ‘corrected’
- e.g. involves use of technology - CCTV cameras, biometric scanning, automated plate number recognition, electronic tagging etc
14
Q
outline Foucault’s concept of the birth of the prison/ his 2 definitions
A
- Foucault distinguishes between sovereign power + disciplinary power;
1) sovereign power: typical of the period of before the 1800s, when monarch had absolute power over people + their bodies. control was asserted by inflicting disfiguring + visible physical punishment (e.g. branding, amputations) - punishment was a brutal, emotional spectacle - e.g. public executions
2) disciplinary power: becomes dominant from the 1800s, a new system of discipline governs not the body, but the mind + soul - it does so through surveillance - F argues disciplinary replaced sovereign power because surveillance is a more efficient ‘technology of power’/ controlling people - not because Western society became more civilised
15
Q
outline Foucault’s Panopticon
A
- Foucault illustrates disciplinary power with the Panopticon;
- this was a design for a prison in which each prisoner in their own cell is visible to the guards from a central watch tower, but the guards aren’t visible to the prisoners
- Ps don’t know if they’re being watched, and so surveillance turns into self-surveillance/ self-discipline - control takes its place inside the prisoner
15
Q
outline Foucault’s view of rehabilitation
A
- unlike sovereign power, which seeks to violently repress offenders, disciplinary power involves monitoring individuals to rehabilitate them
- Foucault sees experts as having an important role to play in applying their specialised knowledge to correct individual’s deviant behaviour
- F argues that the social sciences/ professions such as psychologists were born at the same time as the modern prison
16
Q
outline AO3 evaluations of Foucault’s view
A
- the shift from sovereign power + punishment to disciplinary power + imprisonment is less clear than Foucault suggests - he wrongly assumes that expressive/ emotional aspects of punishment disappears in Modern society
- F exaggerates the extent of control - Goffman shows how some inmates of prisons + mental hospitals resist control
- F overestimates the power of surveillance to change behaviour
16
Q
outline Foucault’s ‘dispersal of discipline’
A
- Foucault: the prison is just 1 institution that, from the 19th century, increasingly began to subject inds to disciplinary power to induce conformity through self-surveillance - includes mental asylums, barracks, factories, schools
- also, non prison-based social control practices, such as community service, form part of a ‘carceral archipelago’ - a series of prison islands that spread into other institutions + wider society, where professionals (e.g. teachers, psychiatrists) exercise surveillance over the population
- Foucault argues that disciplinary power is now integrated into society + reaches every individual through social institutions - thus the self-surveillance of the Panopticon is now how society operates as a whole
17
Q
outline CCTV as a form of panoticism
A
- CCTV cameras are a form of panopticism - we are aware of their presence but are unsure whether they are recording us
- but, they aren’t fully effective in preventing crime
- e.g. Norris’ review of dozens of global studies found that while CCTV reduced crimes in car parks, it had little to no effect on other crime + may even cause displacement
- Feminists, such as Koskela: criticizes CCTV as an extension of the ‘male gaze’ - while it renders W more visible to the voyeurism of male camera operators, it doesn’t make them more secure
18
Q
outline surveillance theories since Foucault
A
- Foucault’s ideas have stimulated others to develop a theory of surveillance in todays late modern society - some of these build on or criticise his panopticism theory;
- Mathiesen’s Synoptic Surveillance
- Haggerty + Ericson’s surveillant assemblages
- Feeley + Simon’s actuarial justice + risk management
- Ditton’s Labelling + Surveillance
19
Q
outline Mathiesen’s idea of synoptic surveillance
A
- Mathiesen: argues that Foucault’s ideas about surveillance only tells half the story when applied to todays society
- while the Panopticon allows the few to monitor the many, today the media also enables many to see a few
- in late modernity there is an increase in top-down/ centralised surveillance (F’s idea), but is also surveillance from below - ‘Synopticon’ where everybody watches everybody
- e.g. Thompson: powerful groups such as politicians fear the medias surveillance of them as it can uncover damaging information about them - this acts as a form of social control over them
- widespread mobile phone ownership allows ordinary citizens to ‘control the controllers’ - e.g. filming police wrongdoing - Mann calls this ‘Sousveillance
19
Q
what is an AO3 evaluation of Mathiesen’s synoptic surveillence
A
- McCahill: occasional bottom-up scrutiny wont be able to reverse established ‘hierarchies of surveillance’ - e.g. anti0terrorism laws, police powers to confiscate cameras/ phones of citizen journalists’
20
Q
outline Haggerty + Ericson’s idea of surveillant assemblages
A
- Foucault’s panoptic approach is based on the idea that surveillance involves the manipulation of physical bodies in confined spaces - e.g. prison
- however, Haggerty + Ericson argues that surveillance technologies now involve the manipulation of virtual objects in cyberspace rather than physical bodies in a physical space
- until recently, surveillance technology was stand alone + unable to communicate to one another - but there is now a trend towards combining different technologies
- e.g. CCTV footage can be analysed using facial recognition software
- Haggerty + Ericson calls this combination ‘surveillance assemblages’, suggesting that were moving towards data from diff technologies being combined to create a ‘data double’ of an individual
20
Q
outline Feely + Simon’s 3 differences from Foucault’s concept of disciplinary power
A
- Feely + Simon: a new ‘technology of power’ is emerging throughout the justice system - it differs from Foucault’s disciplinary power in 3 main ways;
1) focuses on groups not individuals
2) isn’t interested in rehabilitating offenders, but simply to prevent them from offending
3) uses calculations of risk/ ‘actuarial analysis’ - calculates the statistical risk of particular events happening to particular groups - e.g. young drivers’ risk of an accident
21
Q
outline Feely + Simon’s actuarial justice and risk management concept
A
- Feeley + Simon: applies the idea of new emerging technology of power to surveillance + crime control - e.g. airport security screening checks are based on known offender ‘risk factors’ using info gathered about passengers (age, sex, race) of which they can be profiled + given a risk score (young males score higher than older females)
- unlike Foucault’s disciplinary power, the aim of surveillance isn’t to correct/ treat, but to predict + prevent future offending, which it does so by applying surveillance techniques to identify, classify + manage groups sorted by levels of dangerousness
21
Q
outline social sorting and categorical suspicion
A
- Lyon: the purpose of social sorting is to be able to categorise people so they can be treated according to their level of posed risk
- an effect of this is to place entire social groups under what Max calls ‘categorical suspicion’ - when people are placed under suspicion of wrongdoing simply because they belong to a group
- e.g. in 2010, Midland Police sought to introduce a counter-terrorism scheme to surround 2 mainly Muslim suburbs of Birmingham with surveillance cameras - thereby placing the entire community under suspicion
22
Q
outline a problem with actuarial justice
A
- one problem with actuarial justice is the danger of a self-fulfilling prophecy;
- e.g. profiles of typical offenders are often compiled using official crime stats - if these appear to show, e.g. that young Black inner-city males are the group most likely to carry weapons, then police will be more likely to stop them than members of other groups
- consequently, even if all social groups had the same likelihood of carrying a weapon, young Black male offenders will still be more likely to be caught, convicted and end up in crime stats - this confirms the validity of the profiling
23
Q
outline Ditton’s concept of labelling and surveillance
A
- Ditton: in 1 major city center CCTV system, the cameras were capable of zooming in on vehicles from hundreds of meters away to see if their tax had expired
- however, the system’s managers didn’t think this was a suitable use of the technology, and so offences of the motorists were left unchecked
- by contrast, research shows that CCTV operators make discriminatory judgments about who among the thousands of potential ‘suspects’ they should focus on
24
Q
outline Norris + Armstrong’s view of labelling and surveillance
A
- Norris + Armstrong: there is ‘a massively disproportionate targeting’ of young Black males due to their membership of that particular social group
- these racial judgements are based on ‘typifications’/ stereotypical beliefs held by those operating surveillance systems about who are likely offenders - a result being a self-fulfilling prophecy
24
Q
outline reduction as a justification of punishment
A
- reduction is a justification for punishing offenders as it prevents future crime
- this justification is an instrumental one - punishment is a means to an end
- it can be done in 3 ways; deterrence, rehabilitation, incapacitation
24
Q
outline deterrence as a form of punishing offenders
A
1) deterrence: punishing the individual discourages them from future offending - ‘making an example’ of them also serves as a deterrent to the public at large
- e.g. Thatcher’s Conservative govt’s ‘short, sharp shock’ regime in young offenders’ institutions in the 1980s
25
Q
outline rehabilitation as a form of punishing offenders
A
2) rehabilitation: the idea that punishment can be used to reform offender so they no longer offend
- e.g. providing education, training prisoners so that they’re able to earn an honest living on release + anger management courses for violent offenders
25
Q
outline incapacitation as a form of punishing offenders
A
3) incapacitation: the use of punishment to remove the offender’s ability to offend again
- e.g. imprisonment, execution, chemical castration
- incapacitation is increasingly popular with some politicians, with the American 3 strikes rule, and the view that prison works because it removes offenders from society
26
Q
what are the 2 main justifications of punishment
A
1) reduction
2) retribution
26
Q
outline retribution as a justification of punishment of offenders
A
- retribution means ‘paying back’
- it justifies crimes already committed, rather than preventing future crimes
- its based on the idea that offenders deserve to be punished, and that society is entitled to take its revenge on the offender for having breached moral code
- this is an expressive (of society’s outrage) rather than instrumental view of punishment
27
Q
outline Durkheim’s view of the function of crime + punishment
A
- Durkheim’s 2 functions of punishment are;
1) to uphold social solidarity
2) to reinforce shared values
28
Q
what are Durkheim’s 2 types of justice
A
- Durkheim’s 2 types of justice which correspond to 2 types of societies;
1) retributive justice
2) restitutive justice
28
Q
(Durkheim) outline retributive justice
A
- in traditional society;
- there was little specialisation
- strong social solidarity between members of society due to their similarities
- this produced a strong collective conscious, which, when offended, responds with a vengeful passion to repress the wrongdoer
- punishment is severe + cruel, and its motivation is purely expressive
28
Q
what is Durkheim’s view of punishment
A
- punishment is primarily expressive - it expresses society’s emotions of moral outrage at the offence
- through rituals of order, such as public trial + punishment, society’s shared values are reaffirmed + its members come to feel a sense of moral unity
29
Q
(Durkheim) outline restitutive justice
A
- modern society;
- there is extensive specialisation
- solidarity is based on the resulting interdependence between individuals
- crime damages this interdependence, its its necessary to repair the damage - e.g. through compensation
-its called restitutive justice because it aims to make restitution (restore things to their original state) - its motivation is instrumental, to restore society’s equilibrium
- nevertheless, in modern society, punishment still has an expressive element as it still expresses collective emotions
29
Q
outline an AO3 evaluation of Durkheim’s idea of the types of justice
A
- in reality, traditional societies often have restitutive rather than retributive justice as Durkheim claims
- e.g. blood feuds (where a member of one clan is killed by a member of another) are often settled b y payment of compensation rather than execution
30
Q
outline the Marxist view of the function of punishment
A
- Marxists say the functioning of punishment is to maintain the existing social order
- as part of the repressive state apparatus, punishment is a means of defending ruling class property against the lower classes, it is a means of defending ruling class property against the lower classes
- e.g. Thompson describes how in the 18th century, punishments such as hanging + transportation to the colonies for theft etc were part of a ‘rule of terror’ by the landed aristocracy over the poor
31
Q
outline the Marxist view of the forms of punishment
A
- the form of punishment reflects the economic base of society
- Rusche + Kirchheimer argues that each type of economy has its own corresponding penal (punishment) system
- e.g. money fines are impossible without a money economy - under capitalism, imprisonment becomes the dominant form of punishment
32
Q
outline the effectiveness of prisons today
A
- in Liberal democracies that don’t have the death penalty, imprisonment is regarded as the most severe form of punishment
- however, it hasn’t proved an effective method of rehabilitation - about 2/3 of prisoners commit further crimes on release
- many critics view prisons as just an expensive way of making bad people worse
32
Q
outline Melossi and Pavarini’s view of imprisonment
A
- Melossi and Pavarini see imprisonment as reflecting capitalist relations of production, for example;
- capitalism puts a price on the workers’ time: like workers, prisoners ‘do time’ to ‘pay’ for their crime/ ‘repay a debt to society’
- the prison and the capitalist factory both have a similar strict disciplinary style, involving subordination + loss of liberty
32
Q
outline the changing role of prisons
A
- pre-industrial Europe: had a wide range of punishments, including warnings, banishments, transportation, execution etc
- until the 1700s, prison was used mainly for holding offenders prior to their punishment (e.g. flogging)
- with the Enlightenment era, imprisonment began to be seen as a form of punishment in itself, where offenders would be ‘reformed’ through hard labour, religious instruction and surveillance
32
Q
outline imprisonment today
A
- since the 1980s, there has been a move towards ‘populist punitiveness’, where politicians have sought electoral popularity by calling for tougher stances + sentences for crime
- e.g. the New Labour gov after 1997 took the view that prisons should be used for both serious offenders and as a deterrent for persistent petty offenders
- thus, prison populations have risen to record rates - the UK imprisons more than almost any other country in Europe, but not as high as Russia or USA
- the prison population is largely male (only about 5% are female), young and poorly educated - Black people + EMs are overrepresented
33
Q
between -, the number of prisoners in England and Wales almost doubled to a total of _ - this reflects the effects of ‘_’
A
- between 1993-2021, the number of prisoners in England and Wales almost doubled to a total of 80,000 - this reflects the effects of ‘populist punitiveness’
34
Q
outline overcrowding of prisons + an AO2 example of the effect of this
A
- a consequence of the rising prison populations is overcrowding
- this adds to the existing problem of poor sanitation, barely edible food, clothing shortages, lack of educational + work opportunities, and inadequate family visits
- AO2 example: in Sep-Oct 2024, early release of prisoners schemes were implemented in the UK due to overcrowding of prisons, it released a total of 5,500 prisoners early
35
Q
outline the era of mass incarceration
A
- Garland: the USA + UK (to a lesser extent) is moving into an era of mass incarceration
- for most of the also century, the US prison population was stable - in 1972, there were about 200,000 inmates in state + federal prisons
- from the 1970s: numbers began to rise rapidly - there are now 2 million state, local + federal prisoners
- there are a further 4.5 million under the supervision of the CJS (probation, parole)
36
Q
what percentage of the adult population is incarcerated in the USA
A
- in total, over 3% of the adult population, which is 3x over the European rate of imprisonment despite the fact that rates of victimisation are the same in USA + Europe
37
Q
what does Garland say about mass incarceration
A
- Garland argues that imprisonment is no longer the incarceration of individual offenders, but is now the systematic imprisonment of whole groups - in the case of the USA, it’s young Black males
- G argues that the reason for mass incarceration is the growing politicisation of crime control - for most of the last century there was a consensus, which G calls ‘penal welfarism’ - the idea that punishment should reintegrate offenders into society
- since the 70s, there has been a move to a new consensus based on punitive (punishing) exclusionary ‘tough on crime’ policies, leading to rising prison pops
38
Q
compared with White males, Black males are _x more likely to be in prison, and Hispanic and _ are _x as likely
A
- compared with White males, Black males are 6x more likely to be in prison, and Hispanic and Native American are 2x as likely
38
Q
Black Americans are only _% of the US population, but made up _% of the prison population
A
- Black Americans are only 12% of the US population, but made up 33% of the prison population
39
Q
what are 2 alternative explanations for mass incarceration
A
- Downes: mass incarceration may have an ideological function; the US prison system soaks up 30-40% of the unemployed, thereby making capitalism look more successful
- Simon: because drug use is so widespread, this has produced ‘an almost limitless supply of arrestable + imprisonable offenders’ - prisons are being used to wage America’s ‘war on drugs’’
40
Q
outline alternatives to prison
A
- previously, a main goal for young offenders was ‘diversion’ - diverting them away from contact w/ the CJS to avoid the self-fulfilling prophecy turning them into a serious criminal
- the focus was on welfare, treatment, non-custodial + community-based controls such as probation
- recently, there has been growth in the range of community-based controls, e.g. curfews, community service, electronic tagging - but at the same time, the number in custody have been rising - esp among the youth
41
Q
outline transcareration
A
- as with mass incarceration, there is a trend towards transcarceration - the idea that individuals become locked into a cycle of control, shifting between different carceral agencies in their lives
- e.g. someone might be brought up in care, then sent to a young offenders’ institution, then adult prison, with mental hospital in between
- some see transcarceration as a product of the blurring boundaries between criminal justice + welfare agencies - e.g. health, housing + social services are increasingly given crime control roles + engage in multi-agency work w/ police
42
Q
outline Christie’s view of victims of crime
A
- Christie: argues that the notion of a victim is socially constructed
- the stereotype of the ‘ideal victim’ favoured by the media, public + CJS, is a weak, innocent and blameless individual - e.g. small child, old women who is the target of a stranger’s attack
42
Q
outline Cohen’s view of alternatives to prison
A
- Cohen: the growth of community controls has simply cast the ‘net of control’ further
- building on Foucault’s ideas, Cohen argues that the increased range of sanctions available simply enables control to penetrate deeper into society
43
Q
what is the United Nations definition of crime
A
- the United Nations defines victims as those who have suffered harm (mental/ physical/ emotional/ economic) through acts or omissions that violate the laws of the state
44
Q
outline the study of victims
A
- its important to study victims as they play an essential role int he CJS process - e.g. they provide evidence used in the detection of offenders + act as witness at trials
- the study of victims is known as ‘victimology’ in which there are 2 broad perspectives; Positivist Victimology, and Critical Victimology
45
Q
outline the 3 features of Positivist Victimology
A
- Miers: defines positivist victimology as having 3 features;
1) aims to identify factors producing patterns in victimisation - esp those that make some individuals or groups more likely to be victims
2) focuses on interpersonal crimes of violence
3) aims to identify victims who have contributed to their own victimisation
45
Q
outline positivist victimology studies
A
- early positivist studies focused on the idea of ‘victim proneness’ - they sought to identify the social + psychological characteristics of victims that differentiate + make more vulnerable than non-victims
- Hentig: identified 13 characteristics of victims - e.g. female, elderly + ‘mentally subnormal’ - implying that victims in some sense ‘invite’ victimisation by being the kind of person they are
46
Q
(positivist victimology) outline Wolfgang’s study
A
- Wolfgang: studied 588 homicides in USA + found that 26% involved ‘victim precipitation’ - the victim triggered the events leading to the homicide - e.g. instigating violence
- Brookman: Wolfgang’s study shows the importance of the victim-offender relationship + the fact that in many homicides, its a matter of change which party becomes the victim
47
Q
outline AO3 evaluations of positivist victimology
A
- this approach identifies patterns of interpersonal victimisation, but ignores wider structural factors influencing victimisation - e.g. poverty, patriarchy
- this approach can easily tip over into victim blaming - e.g. Amir’s claim that 1 in 5 rapes are victim precipitated is similar to saying the victim ‘asked for it’
- it ignores situations where victims are unaware of their victimisation, e.g. some crimes against the environment, where harm is done but no law broken
48
Q
outline critical victimology + its 2 foci
A
- critical victimology is based on conflict theories such as Marxism + Feminism and shares the same approach as critical criminology
- it focuses on 2 elements;
1) structural factors: e.g. patriarchy which place powerless groups such as women greater risk of victimisation - Mawby + Walklate: victimisation is a form of ‘structural powerlessness’
2) state’s power to apply/ deny the label of victim: ‘victim’ is a social construct in the same way as ‘criminal’ - through the CJS, the state applies the label of victim to some, but withholds it from others - e.g. when police don’t press charges against a man for assaulting his wife, thus denying her victim status
49
Q
(critical victimology) outline Tombs and Whyte’s view
A
- Tombs and Whyte: show that ‘safety crimes’, where employers’ violations of the law lead to death/ injury to workers, are often explained away as the fault of ‘accident prone’ workers
- as with many rape cases, this both denies the victim official ‘victim status’ + blames them for their fate
- T + W argue there is an ideological function of this failure to label/ de-labelling - by concealing the true extent of victimisation + its real causes, it hides the crimes of the powerful + denies powerless victims clarity
- in the ‘hierarchy of victimisation’, the powerless are most likely to be victimised yet least likely to have this acknowledged by the state
50
Q
outline AO3 evaluations of critical victimology
A
- critical victimology disregards the role victims play in bringing victimisation on themselves through their own choices - e.g. not making their home secure, or their own offending
- they fail to draw attention to the way that ‘victim’ status is constructed by power + how this benefits the powerful at the expense of the powerless
51
Q
outline the 5 categories for patterns of victimisation
A
1) age
2) ethnicity
3) gender
4) class
5) repeat victimisation
52
Q
outline class as a factor of victimisation
A
- the poorest groups are more likely to be victimised - e.g. crime rates are typically highest in areas of high unemployment + deprivation
- Newburn and Rock found from a survey of 300 homeless people that they were 12x more likely to have experienced violence than the general population and 1 in 10 had been urinated on whilst sleeping
53
Q
outline age as a factor of victimisation
A
- younger people are more at risk of victimisation
- those most at risk of being murdered are infants under 1, while teenagers are more vulnerable than adults to crimes such as assault, sexual harassment, theft and abuse at home
- the old are also at risk of abuse, e.g. in care homes, but in general, the risk of victimisation declines with age
54
Q
outline ethnicity as a factor of victimisation
A
- EM groups are at greater risk than White people of being victims of crime in general, as well as racially motivated crimes
- in relation to the police, EMs, the young and the homeless are more likely to report feeling under-protected yet over-controlled
55
Q
outline gender as a factor of victimisation
A
- males are at greater risk than female of becoming victims of violent attacks, esp by strangers
- about 70% of homicide victims are male
- BUT, women are more likely to be victims of domestic violence, sexual violence, stalking, harassment, trafficking and, in times of armed conflict, mass rapes as a weapon of war
56
Q
outline repeat victimisation as a factor of victimisation
A
- repeat victimisation refers to the fact that, if you have been a victim once, then you are more likely to be one again
- British Crime Survey: about 60% of the population hasn’t been victims of any kind of crime in a year, whereas 4% of the population are victims of 44% of all crimes of that period
57
Q
outline the impact of victimisation
A
- crime can have serious physical and emotional impacts on its victims - e.g. research found a variety of effects (depending on the crime), such as loss of sleep, feeling helpless, increased security-consciousness, difficulties in social functioning
- crime can also create ‘indirect’ victims - e.g. friends, family, witnesses to the crime
- also, hate crimes against minorities may create ‘waves of harm’ that radiate out to affect others - e.g. ‘messages’ aimed at intimidating whole communities, not just the primary victim
58
Q
outline Pynoos’ findings of the effect of victimisation
A
- Pynoos found that child witnesses of a sniper attack continued to have grief-related dreams + altered behaviour a year after the event
59
Q
(impact of victimisation) outline secondary victimisation
A
- secondary victimisation is the idea that in addition to the impact of the crime itself, individuals may suffer further victimisation at the hands of the CJS
- Feminists: rape victims are often treated poorly by the police + courts, which amounts to a double violation
60
Q
(impact of victimisation) outline fear of victimisation
A
- crime can create fear of becoming a victim
- some sociologists argue that surveys show this fear to often be irrational
- e.g. some women are more afraid of going out for fear of attack, yet it is young men who are main victims of violence from stranger
- however, Feminists have attacked the emphasis on ‘fear of crime’, as it focuses on women’s passivity + their psychological state, when we should be focusing on their safety - e.g. the structural threat of patriarchal violence
