Victims Of Crime

Question 1

Positivism

Answer 1

Concerned with identifying patterns of victimisation and trends in the distribution of victims across social groups such as social class, age, gender and ethnicity

Question 2

Von hentig

Answer 2

Claimed that most victims of violence belong to ‘vulnerable’ status groups such as females and the elderly. He also implied that their lack of status invited the crime against them

Question 3

Wolfgang

Answer 3

Researched over 500 murders in one city in the USA and concluded that some victims precipitated their killing by initiating the violence

Question 4

Crime survey of England and Wales

Answer 4

• young males are 2x more likely to be victims of violence compared with females
• Poorer households are more likely to be burgled than higher income households
• people from ethnic minority backgrounds are more likely to be victims of crime compared with white people

Question 5

Mawby and walklate

Answer 5

Criticise positivist victimology because it does not criticise the role of the CJS in creating secondary victimisation
E.g in rape trials, the victims reputation and actions may also be questioned and ‘put on trial’. Which may put forth other victims of rampage

Question 6

Sue lees

Answer 6

Estimates that about 66% of female rape victims never go to the police and there are never officially recognised as victims because they fear that the police and courts will blame them for precipitating the offence against them

Question 7

Christie

Answer 7

Some victims of crime are considered more newsworthy by journalists e.g child victims such as Madeline McCann and ben needham fit the media’s profile of their ideal victim whereas other victims from either poorer or BAME backgrounds may not

Question 8

Walklate

Answer 8

Victimologists need to pay attention to the role of the state. The state has the power to define who is regarded as a victim through law-making. It is the breaking of the law that defines a victims status so therefore the state has the power to label and deny particular individuals e.g in 2016 the people killed in the hills borough football disaster were officially recognised of the unlawful killing

Question 9

Marxist victimology

Answer 9

Point out that the poorer sections of society are often the victims of crimes or harms committed by the powerful such as price fixing, green crimes and negligent practices - these victims are often not visible

Question 10

Left realist victimology

Answer 10

Lea and young surveyed victims of crime in inner city areas and discovered that both the poor and women stood an above average chance of being repeat or regular victims of crime
They criticise the sample used by CSEW because it misses groups such as the homeless who according to Newburn and Rock are 13x more likely to be victims then homeowners

Question 11

Merseyside crime survey

Answer 11

Carried out by Kinsey in 1984, found that the poor, especially those from BAME backgrounds, suffer more than the wealthy from the effects of crime. This is because they do not have the resources to protect themselves from repeat victimisation