Victimology Flashcards
What stats has the CSEW gathered?
AO3
- 2018: about 1 in 4 people have experienced crimes against themselves or home
- Those most at risk were young men (16-24), full time students, and the unemployed
- The risk for people over 75 was just 0.4%
Who are the positivist victimologists?
AO1/2
- Miers: positive victimology aims to identify factors that make people more likely to be victims, focuses on interpersonal crimes of violence e.g. assault, and aims to identify victims who have contributed to their own victimisation
- Tierney: how women dress make them more likely to be victims of sexual assault, ethnic minorities in inner city areas are more likely to join gangs and be victims of violent crime
- Hentig: identifies 13 characteristics that make people more vulnerable including being a woman, elderly, and mentally ill
- Wolfgang: out of 588 Philadelphia homocides, 26% involved victim preciptation
How can we evaluate positivist victimology?
AO3
- Victim blaming: blames women in particular for being sexually assaulted rather than rapists
- Amir: 1 in 5 rape cases were victim preciptated - the women were at least partly to blame as they were ‘asking for it’
- Ignores structures: focuses on indivduals rather than acknowledging wider societal structures that make them vulnerable e.g. poverty, racism
Who are critical victimologists?
AO1/2
Based on structural factors like patriarchy and poverty.
- Mawby and Walklate: victimisation is a form of structural powerlessness. The CJS has the power to decide who is a victim and who isn’t e.g. a police choosing not to prosecute a husband for domestic violence denies the wife victim status
- Tombs and Whyte: employers violate health and safety laws and have the power to label it as an ‘accident’. Takes away any power the victims have to the label of victim
What is the hierarchy of victimology?
AO1
The powerless in society are most likely to be victims of crime but least likely to be recognised by the state. e.g. criminals and prostitutes are more at risk but people care less whereas professionals, children, and the elderly are less at risk but people care more when they are victims as they are higher on the victim hierarchy
What are examples of critical victimology and the hierarchy?
AO2/3
- 2017 Grenfell Tower Fire: council housing in Kensigton had highly flammable cladding that caught fire. 7 years on and there are still individuals who need to be rehoused and similar buildings with the same cladding still exist across the UK - but inhabitants are WC, ethnic minorities so they are low on the hierarchy
How can we evaluate critical victimology?
AO3
- Ignores the role victims play in their own victimisation e.g. not making their homes safe - Home Office Campaign: “don’t advertise your homes to thieves”
- In today’s society, it’s only the CJS that has the power to label people as victims - the media can do this, especially social media can do this e.g. Marc Duggan. For someone to be ‘guilty by press’ (Greer and Reiner) someone else must be a victim by press
What is the relationship between gender and victimisation?
(stats)
AO1/2/3
- Around 70% of homicide victims are male
- An incident of domestic violence is reported to the police every minute and 2 women are killed each week by a current or former partner
- Walklate: Women make up 92% of all rape cases BUT 2 out of 3 don’t report it
- There was a 61% increase in calls to the domestic violence helpline in 2020
Why does Walklate believe women don’t report crime?
AO1
Secondary victimisation:
- Women don’t report crime as they go on trial twice
- First they have to go through the experience making them a victim
- Then they have to relive the experience as their entire character is put on trial
How does the Ruth Coppinger rape case show Walklate’s point?
AO2
- A man was acquitted for raping a 17 year old girl after a defence lawyer told the jury: “you have to look at the way she was dressed. She was wearing a thong with a lace front”
- If a 17 year old can be seen as ‘asking for it’ then women have no reason to believe they’ll be listened to
- The controversy led Irish MP, Ruth Coppinger, to hold up a lace thong in parliament to highlight “routine victim-blaming”
How can we analyse Walklate?
AO3
- 2024 Telegraph: 3/4 of defence lawyers use victim blaming language
- Adler: especially relevant to single mothers who are believed less in court
What scholars can we apply to why men are more likely to be victims?
AO1/2
- McRobbie: bedroom culture - women are controlled more and forced into the bedroom - men are more likely to be in dangerous situations
- Miller: subcultures - men are more likely to belong to criminal subcultures which in turn puts them at greater risk of crime - one of the focal concerns of criminal WC subculture is ‘masculinity’ and ‘toughness’ this translates to violent crime which makes them more likely to be victims of violence
- Crisis of masculinity: men put themselves in situations more likely to commit crime to overcompensate which puts them at greater risk. Winlow: Sutherland bouncers
What is the relationship between ethnicity and victimisation?
AO1/2
- CSEW and Home Office stats show that ethnic minorities are more likely to be victims of most crimes than white people
- Black and Indian ethnic groups are more likely to be robbed
- Black people are more likely than white people to be assaulted or murdered
How does Clancy et al explain the link between ethnicity and victimisation?
AO1
- Ethnic minorities are more likely to be unemployed
- Ethnic minorities have a younger age structure - younger people are more likely to be victims
How can we analyse Clancy?
AO3
Pakistanis and Bangladeshis have the highest rates of unemployment
