Victimology

Question 1

What is victim facilitation?

Answer 1

When a victim unintentionally makes it easier for the offender to commit the crime. A victim may be a catalyst for victimisation.

Question 2

What is an example of victim facilitation?

Answer 2

Someone leaves their laptop on the front seat of the car in plain, then the car is broken into. This does not make the victim blameworthy. The offender should not have stolen it regardless. But the actions of the victim made them an easier target.

Question 3

What are the advantages of victim facilitation?

Answer 3

Unlike participation, this helps understand why one person may be victimised over another

Question 4

What is victim participation?

Answer 4

The extent to which a victim is responsible for their own victimisation. Acknowledges that crime victimisation involves at least two people. Both parties are acting and often reacting before, during and after the incident.

Question 5

What are the disadvantages of victim participation?

Answer 5

Often seen to be blaming the victim while ignoring the role of the offender

Question 6

What is victim provocation?

Answer 6

When a person does something that incites another person to commit the illegal act. Without the victim’s behaviours, the crime would not have occurred. This implies blame towards the victim. The offender is not at all responsible.

Question 7

What is an example of victim provocation?

Answer 7

The offender attempts to mug someone and this person, instead of giving over valuables, pulls out a knife and stabs the offender. The offender is ultimately the victim, but if they were not attempting to mug the person who stabbed them.

Question 8

What are the two types of victimology?

Answer 8

Positivist and critical victimology

Question 9

What is critical victimology?

Answer 9

Attempts to understand the large-scale environment in which crime occurs. Critical victimologists study how groups like women, the lower-class and racial minorities are structurally at a higher risk of victimisation. They look at the structural factors that contributed to the individual being in that situation and how they can cause certain groups to have a higher chance of being a victim.

Question 10

What are the advantages of critical victimology?

Answer 10

Attempts to step away from victim blaming tendencies of other approaches by explaining how social forces contribute to a person’s probability of being victimised. Recognises the need for victim’s rights within the criminal justice system if our society wants to see an improvement in victimisation rates.

Question 11

What are the disadvantages of critical victimology?

Answer 11

Disregards the role victims might play in bringing crime upon themselves. Realists argue that it is not the job of criminologists to criticise governments and the police. It is not the most effective way to reduce crime and help victims of ‘ordinary crime’

Question 12

What is positivist criminology?

Answer 12

Aims to identify the factors that produce patterns in victimisation. Focuses on interpersonal crimes of violence. Focuses on the idea of victim proneness. Someone’s characteristics make them more likely to become a victim. The most common factors are if they are female, elderly or have a mental abnormality.

Question 13

What are the disadvantages of positivist criminology?

Answer 13

Can be easy to tip over into victim blaming. Tends to focus on traditional crimes, not green or corporate crime. Ignores wider structural factors such as poverty.

Question 14

What did Hans Von Hentig find?

Answer 14

Some of the same characteristics that produce crime also produce victimisation. Victims may provoke victimisation based on their characteristics.

Question 15

What were the 13 characteristics?

Answer 15

Young, old, female, ignorants, minorities, dull normals, mentally defective or deranged, depressed, wanton, lonesome or heartbroken, tormentors, blocked, exempted and fighting

Question 16

What did Mendelsohn find?

Answer 16

Conducted interviews with victims and witnesses. Found that victims and offenders often knew each other.

Question 17

How did Mendelsohn classify victims?

Answer 17

Classified victims based on their culpability

Question 18

What were the six levels of culpability?

Answer 18

Completely innocent, victim with minor guilt, victim as guilty as offender, victim more guilty than offender, most guilty victim and simulating victim

Question 19

What did Stephen Schafer argue?

Answer 19

Individuals have the responsibility not to provoke others into victimising them and should actively attempt to prevent that.

Question 20

How did Schafer classify victims?

Answer 20

Classified victims based on their culpability

Question 21

What were the seven levels of culpability?

Answer 21

Unrelated victims, provocative victims, precipitative victims, biologically weak victims, socially weak victims, self-victimising and political victims

Question 22

What did Marvin Wolfgang do?

Answer 22

Conducted a study of homicides occurring in Philadelphia between 1948 and 1952. Examined 558 homicides to see to what extent victims precipitated (provoked) their own deaths. He labelled the homicide as victim-precipitated if the victim was a direct, positive precipitator.

Question 23

What did Wolfgang find?

Answer 23

Found that the victim and offender often knew each other and that victim precipitated homicides involved male offenders and male victims

Question 24

What did Menachem Amir do?

Answer 24

Studied rapes that occurred from 1958 to 1960 in Philadelphia. Examined the extent to which victims precipitated their own rapes.

Question 25

What did Amir find?

Answer 25

The offender’s interpretation of actions is more important than what the victim does. The offender may view the victim as going against what he considers appropriate female behaviour

Question 26

What were common attributes?

Answer 26

The victim was likely to consume alcohol, engage in seductive behaviour, wear revealing clothing, use risqué language, and have a bad reputation

Question 27

What are patterns of victimisation in social class?

Answer 27

People from deprived areas are more likely to be victims of crime. They live in higher crime neighbourhoods.

Question 28

What are patterns of victimisation in age?

Answer 28

Younger people are more at risk of victimisation than older people. They are often victimised by their own age group.

Question 29

What are patterns of victimisation in ethnicity?

Answer 29

Ethnic minority groups are at a greater risk than white people of being victims of hate crime

Question 30

What are patterns of victimisation in gender?

Answer 30

Males are at a greater risk of being victims of violent attacks. Women are more likely to be victims of domestic violence, sexual violence and people trafficking. Transgender people are more likely to be victims of hate crime.

Question 31

What is repeat victimisation?

Answer 31

Some targets are unusually attractive to criminals or particularly vulnerable to crime. These characteristics tend to remain constant over time. Repeat victimisation can follow the successful outcome of an initial offence. The offender gains important knowledge about a target and uses this information to reoffend.

Question 32

What can victimisation impact?

Answer 32

Victimisation can impact people on an emotional, physical, financial, psychological and social level. Some victims experience permanent disabilities or long-term symptoms such as PTSD.

Question 33

What affects the way someone responds to a crime?

Answer 33

The type of crime, whether they know the offender and the support they get from friends and family

Question 34

What is secondary victimisation?

Answer 34

When the victim suffers further harm not as a direct result of the criminal act but due to the way institutions and other people deal with the victim.

Question 35

What can cause secondary victimisation?

Answer 35

Caused by repeated exposure of the victim to the perpetrator, repeated interrogation about the same facts, the use of inappropriate language or insensitive comments made by other people

Question 36

How do victims of rape experience secondary victimisation?

Answer 36

Feminists argue that victims of rape experience secondary victimisation when they are ‘put on trial’ by being accused of lying by the defence

Question 37

How does crime affect others?

Answer 37

Crime negatively affects relationships and children if a member of the family is a victim of crime