Victims

Question 1

Describe the crime survey for England and Wales

Answer 1

• National victimisation study
• People in households asked about their experience with crime within the last 12 months
• Considered more accurate than police stats as also includes crimes that weren’t reported to police
• Able to look at a wide range of victim-based crime and gives an insight to those directly involved
• Allows for the calculation of estimates based on a variety of different measures, inc. numbers of incidents of crime, incidence rates, prevalence rates (risk of being a victim)
• For individual crime types, the number of victims will be lower than the number of incidents as some people face repeat victimisation

Question 2

What are the main findings of the crime survey?

Answer 2

The Extent of Crime

• The actual number of crimes committed far exceeds the crimes reported or recorded by police
• Rates for reporting/recording crime are fairly low

Distribution of Rates of Victimisation
- Extremely skewed and crime events are unequally distributed across social groups by age, social class, ethnicity, neighbourhoods, gender and types of housing

The Victims of Crime
- Crime has effects at the level of the individual - socially, psychologically, emotionally and behaviourally and has considerable implications for quality of life

Public vs Private Context of Crimes

• A large amount of crimes (esp violent) takes place in the context of the family and private relationships
• As many as 25% of assaults have occurred in such relationships

Repeat/Multiple Victimisation
- A small minority of people will be victimised multiple times either from the same offence or from different offences

Fear of Crime

• Complex connection with actual levels of crime and victimisation
• Has negative effects similar to actual victimisation

Question 3

Describe declining crime rates

Answer 3

• Crime rates have been declining over last 20yrs
• ## Are they really declining or just being reported/recorded less

Question 4

Describe social distribution and impact of crime

Answer 4

• Victimisation and concern about crime fall more heavily on certain groups (e.g. disadvantaged groups)
• Crime has short-term and long-term effects
• Recovery from effects depends on access to personal and social resources
• Victimisation can have severe effects on children
• Effects of victimisation usually depends on crime but some crimes can have surprising effects and be more severe than expected
• Impacts of crime is intensified by social disadvantage and reputation

Question 5

Describe the effects of victimisation

Answer 5

Social effects

• Financial
• Physical
• Behavioural
• Quality of life
• Avoiding others/situations

Individual/Psychological effects

• Fear and mistrusting others
• Anxiety
• Ill health
• Cognitive effects
• Anger
• Grief
• Depression
• Self-blame
• Implications of self-image/esteem

Vulnerabilities

• Often feel vulnerable/unsafe
• Lack of ‘social capital’
• Key concept is understanding why some people become victims whilst others that are similar don’t/why do some face effects of consequences of victimisation whilst others don’t
• Believed that vulnerabilities in people’s lives appear to expose them as a greater risk to crimes and these vulnerabilities also increase chances of facing negative effects and less chance of recovery

Question 6

What are the theories of the offender-victim overlap

Answer 6

1. McGarry and Walklate, 2015

2. Cornish and Clarke, 2006

Question 7

Describe McGarry and Walklate, 2015

Answer 7

• Argues offending behaviour and victimisation is a result of socio-economic disadvantage
• These disadvantages limit the individual’s behaviour and lifestyle choices

Question 8

Describe Cornish and Clarke, 2006

Answer 8

Routine Activities Perspectives

• Routine activites = everyday activities
• These routines may bring offender into contact with victim, making it possible for the crime to be committed
• More common in young offenders as often act on opportunity; if they happen to come across the right victim they will commit a crime
• Potential victim may unintentionally facilitate the crime
• How vulnerable the offender appears to be is highly influential on the offender’s actions
• More vulnerable = less risky
• If crime is successful the first time the offender is more likely to repeat the behaviour with a similar victim
• Offenders believe they are more likely to succeed in high crime areas; if they hear someone else has been successful in a particular area, more likely to commit the same crime in the same area with a similar victim
• Links to multiple victimisation; words spread about good victim e.g. if there is a house with no alarm that doesn’t lock windows then several burglars will target that house
• In order for a crime to be committed, 3 things must be present:

1. An attractive target
   - There is a reason a person is a victim e.g. they want someone the offender wants
2. A motivated offender
   - An offender who is willing to commit a crime, believes pros outweigh the cons, willing to face consequences
3. Absence of a ‘capable guardian’
   - Nothing/nobody to stop/prevent the crime
   - Doesn’t have to be a person e.g. absence of house alarm/not locking doors means house is likely to be targeted by burglars

Question 9

Describe the general theory of crime

Answer 9

• Designed by Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990
• Emphasis on lack of control and poor socialisation
• Poor socialisation may lead to criminal activity as parent’’s do not monitor children’s behaviour or punish criminal activity when it begins
• Poor socialisation leads to low self-control which leads to risky behaviour; leads to putting themselves in situations where they are at risk for being victimised as well as being likely to participation crime

Question 10

Describe the victim-offender overlap

Answer 10

1. Prior experience as a victim may lead to future offending
   - Offenders usually from disadvantaged backgrounds and have high chance of being victimised in the past
   - Likely to feel weak and have low status; may act an offender to improve status and self-esteem
   - Growing up around abuse/offending may lead to normalising crime and will also teach them how to be a criminal
   - Victims often from disadvantaged backgrounds, may be tempted to commit crime to help self/family/friends
   - If victims feels CJS hasn’t dealt with criminal quick enough/in the appropriate way then they could take law into own hands
2. Current offenders have a strong risk of becoming victims in future
   - Esp. likely in violent offenders

• Usually due to the risky routine activities of offenders/victims
• Argued that on of the causes of the overlap is due to the time that young people spend time with delinquent peers without supervision of a positive role model

Question 11

Describe Averduk et al (2016)

Answer 11

• Proposed the decision making perspective
• Victims of crime often have decision making processes altered e.g. seeing benefits as outweighing the costs
• Considers emotional factors as emotions play a significant role in behaviour and thoughts; violence associated with anger and feelings of injustice
• Increase of aggression after being victimised as they fear they will be a victim again
• Victims of violence may feel their status has been decreased, feel weak, lack self-esteem so act violently to increase these things; usually have less shame for committing crime as they feel it is morally justified

Question 12

Implications for criminal justice system and the offender-victim overlap

Answer 12

• Strong evidence to suggest that custodial sentencing is not beneficial to society or to the individual
• Usually go straight back to offending and usually worse than before
• Leads to high rates of crime and victims
• Focus should be on rehabilitation not on punishment
• E.g. help them develop skills that will help them stay focused when released and prevent reoffending
• Those who are at high risk for offending (e.g. past victims) set up with a positive role model where together than create life goals and be a general positive influence
• Research suggests that victims who have life goals and have positive role models are unlikely to offend
• Mentoring scheme will lead to less offending, less victims, lower crime rates
• Due to police budget cuts, often take a long time to respond to a crime and sometimes nothing is done
• Can lead to victim taking law into own hands and offending as a result
• To prevent this all victims should be treated equally e.g. don’t ignore lower class victims which is typically done (esp. as these are already more likely to offend
• Many offenders have low self-esteem e.g. being seen as a failure in school
• May begin offending as a way to boost self-esteem and be successful in something
• Should be helped to focus on skills, find something the are good at, find a suitable career
• Will also reduce boredom (lots of young offending is done out of boredom