L4 / CH5 Flashcards
Briefly characterize victimology as a field of knowledge.
Victimology is the study of victims and their experiences, focusing on understanding victimization trends and challenges faced by victims of crime. It is an emerging discipline that emphasizes a victim-centered approach, contrasting with criminology’s focus on offenders.
Why was the criminal justice system indifferent to victims of crime for a long period of time?
Historically, the early criminal justice system focused on how people became criminals (whether they were born bad or pushed in a way into criminal activities) and apprehending and prosecuting offenders, often neglecting the needs and experiences of victims.
Who is a victim of crime? Provide a definition and a brief description.
A victim of crime is a person who has been harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a criminal act. This includes individuals who suffer direct physical, emotional, or financial harm by the offender
Define and describe the following concepts: direct victim, indirect victim, actual victim, vicarious victim.
Direct Victim: A person who is present at the time of victimization and experiences harm
Indirect Victim: not directed affected or harmed, but present at a victiminzing event, such as family members of the direct victim.
Actual Victim: A person who is the direct target of victimization.
Vicarious Victim: People who experience harm through exposure to a crime, such as witnesses or individuals who hear about the crime.
Characterize Strobl’s Self and Other Victim Classification.
Strobl’s Self and Other Victim Classification categorizes victims based on their own perception and the perception of others. There are four types:
Actual victim: The person believes they were victimized, and others agree.
Rejected victim: The person believes they were victimized, but others do not agree.
Designated victim: The person does not believe they were victimized, but others see them as a victim.
Non-victim: Neither the person nor others believe they were victimized.
How do we measure victimization? Identify the main difficulties.
Victimization is measured through surveys and official crime reports. Main difficulties include underreporting of crimes, potential trauma to victims, and challenges in collecting accurate data from victims.
Why are people reluctant to report victimization incidents to the police?
People may be reluctant to report crimes due to fear of retaliation, belief that the incident is too minor, not important enough for police investigation, there was no real harm done, or feelings of embarrassment or shame
Describe the emotional reactions following victimization.
Emotional reactions following victimization often include anger, stress, fear, confusion, and in severe cases, symptoms of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) such as rape trauma syndrome
Why is the concept of victim precipitation controversial?
The concept of victim precipitation is controversial because it suggests that victims are partly to blame for their own victimization, which can reinforce harmful stereotypes, justify victim-blaming, and absolve perpetrators of responsibility for their actions.
- we wouldn’t be questioning what the victim does to precipitate the event if the victimizing event didn’t occur
- totally guilty victim means there is no victimizer = not true
Resilience and victimization: two types of protective mechanisms.
Resilience refers to the ability to resist trauma and successfully cope and recover from trauma
The two types of protective mechanisms that act as insulators are 1) personal protective factors (characteristics possessed by an individual) such as coping skills and social skills, and 2) community and social support factors, which include support from family, friends, and community resources
Characterize the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights.
guarantees certain rights for victims at the federal level, ensuring they are protected and supported during the criminal justice process, without interfering with the rights of the victimizer. thegovernment priortizes the protection of rights of all citizen, so the state must prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the victimizer has done harm before it removes any of those rights through penalties and/or imprisonment.
