Crime control - Victimology

Question 1

What are victims of crime increasingly viewed as?

Answer 1

• Victims of crime are viewed as consumers or customers of the CJS
• Success is now judged by the extent to which it meets the needs of victims, not just how effectively it deals with offenders.

Question 2

How can victims of crime being seen as consumers of the criminal justice system be shown?

Answer 2

• Introduction of a National Crime Recording standard for recording crimes was adopted in 2002 which prioritises victims’ account of a crime occurring, rather than to the police view of the evidence.
• Victim Support schemes are now an integral part of the CJS.
• Growing emphasis on restorative justice.
• In 2013 the Home Office announced that victims of antisocial behaviour and low level crime will be able to have their say on out of court punishments of offenders.

Question 3

Who counts as a victim is socially constructed, which can be affected by people not reporting whether they have been a victim of crime. What may this be due to?

Answer 3

• Victims not realising they have even been victimised.
• Refusing to accept they have been victimised or blaming themselves.
• Thinking the label of ‘victim’ makes them weak or foolish.
• Others may regard them as responsible for their own victimisation, e.g. Tombs and
  Whyte suggest victims of accidents at work as a result of corporate health and safety
  failings are often blamed for being negligent.

Question 4

What does Hoyle say about the effects of victimisation?

Answer 4

• Mental health issues such as depression
• Disrupted sleep
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Fear of further victimisation
• Restrictions over movement

Question 5

What is secondary victimisation?

Answer 5

• Further victimisation (secondary victimisation) can occur as a result of the original or primary victimisation.
• Secondary victimisation can also be found in cases of honour crime, where women who have
  been raped can face further victimisation by family members for the dishonour and shame
  that their victimisation has brought on their family.

Question 6

What are the gender patterns of victimisation?

Answer 6

• Young men (16-24) have about twice the risk of being the victim of most violent crime but this declines with age.
• Women are far more likely than men to be victims of ‘intimate crimes’. These crimes are also
  less likely to be reported, recorded, or to result in offenders being convicted.

Question 7

What are the patterns of victimisation with domestic violence?

Answer 7

• 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men will suffer some form of domestic violence at some point in their relationships.
• 89% of domestic assaults are committed by men against their female partners.
• Each year about 150 people are killed by a current or former partner and 80% are women.
• The majority of victims do not report it or seek help as they are either afraid the violence will get worse, are ashamed or see it as a private matter.

Question 8

What do many female victims suffer from?

Answer 8

• Repeat victimisation –> suffer the same offence many times, yet many don’t leave their partners, often because of lack of resources for be economically independent, they have nowhere else to go, they blame themselves, they are afraid of further violence or are afraid of losing their children.

Question 9

What are the patterns of victimisation for rape?

Answer 9

• About 90% of rape victims are women and it is estimated about 1 in 10 rape victims report
  the offence.
• A common conception is that rapists are strangers unknown to the victims. However, around
  84% of female victims knew the perpetrator.

Question 10

What are the patterns of victimisation with age?

Answer 10

• The lifestyles of the young give them greater opportunity to commit crime and also expose
  them to being victims of crime.
• The likelihood of being a victim decreases as an individual
  gets older.
• In 2013/14 it was found that adults aged 16-24 were around 9 times more likely to be victims of crimes against the individual than those aged 75 and over.

Question 11

What are the patterns of victimisation with ethnicity?

Answer 11

• The risk of being a victim of personal crime is higher for minority ethnic groups than for the white group.
• Apart from racial incidents, this may be part in explained by the fact that minority ethnic groups are more likely to be younger, working class and live in deprived areas.
  Between 2007 and 2010 African Caribbean people were four times more at risk of homicide.
• Minority ethnic groups are up to 14 times more likely to be victims of racially motivated
  incidents.
• Honour crimes and forced marriages are exclusively linked to ethnic minority groups and
  women are overwhelmingly the victims.

Question 12

What are the patterns of crime with social class?

Answer 12

The poorest sections of the working class are the most likely victims of crime.
The highest rates of victimization are found:
1) Among the ‘hard pressed’: the unemployed, long term sick, low income families etc.
2) In areas of high physical disorder: with widespread vandalism and graffiti etc.
3) In areas with high levels of deprivation.
Those in the 20% of poorest areas faced much higher risks of being victims of household
crime compared to the 20% most affluent areas.

Question 13

How do positivist victimology explain victimisation?

Answer 13

TIERNEY suggests this involves identifying something in the characteristics of circumstances of victims which makes them different from non victims.
These are:
1) Victim proneness: the characteristics of individuals or groups that make them more
vulnerable to victimization.
2) Victim precipitation: victims are actively involved in, or to blame for, their
victimization, e.g. victims failing to conceal valuables.

Question 14

What are the criticisms of positivist victimology to explain victimisation?

Answer 14

• It tends to blame the victims rather than the offenders. Feminist writers, for example, have
  been very critical of suggestions from positivist victimiology that victims of intimate crimes
  are somehow to blame.
• It downplays the role of the law and criminal justice agencies in not tackling crime effectively
  and therefore contributing to victimization.
• It focuses too much on the characteristics of individual victims and does not pay enough
  attention to wider structural factors, e.g. poverty, that often make some groups and
  communities more vulnerable to crime than others.
• It doesn’t recognise there are situations where people may unwittingly become victims or are
  not aware of their victimization, e.g. corporate or white collar crimes.

Question 15

What are the radical or critical victimology theories which can be used to explain victimology?

Answer 15

• It focuses on how wider social issues, including the criminal justice system, produce victimization. For example, deprivation means it is the most deprived members of society who are most likely to be victims, whilst Feminists suggest women are victims of intimate crimes due to male power in a patriarchal society.
• The higher rates of victimization among ethnic minorities have been explained by under protection by a racist police force which regards ethnic minorities as offenders rather than victims.

Question 16

What are the criticisms of using a radical or critical victimology to explain victimisation?

Answer 16

• It ignores the issues of victim precipitation and proneness that positivist victimology
  identities.
• For example, many people would regard burglars injured by householders trying to
  protect their property as responsible for their victimization.