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Summary Victimology
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An English summary of all lectures and articles by Victimology (note, 2 articles are summarized in Dutch).
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Victimology summary 20/21Week 1:
- Lecture 1: An introduction into the field of victimology + pre-recorded lecture
- Victimology: a social science in waiting?
- Victimology: past, present and future
- Chapter One: Victimology: A comprehensive approach
Lecture 1: An introduction into the field of victimology
Victimology – what is it?
The scientific study of victims of crime; the extent, nature and causes of criminal victimization and it’s
consequences for the persons involved as well as the study of the reactions to and the treatment of
victims of crime.’ – The World Society of Victimology
Three categories of Victimological research:
- Focused on crime victims (specific definition)
- Focused on human rights victims (lecture 5)
- Focused on all victims (general or broad)
Victimology draws from all types of sciences: law, criminology, sociology, psychology, and so on .
Victimology – the origin (deze personen worden in de artikelen nog vaak genoemd)
Benjamin Mendelsohn: father of Victimology, the first one to name victimology. A lawyer who
studied victims. Based on information he gained from victims he wrote his book. Stating that there’s
always some social interaction between victims that caused crimes. Later he adjusted this as he
found that victims should be seen in a broader perspective General Victimology
Hans von Hentig: The Criminal and His Victim. Solely based on victims of crime. Definition of
victimology should only be based on crime victims according to him Victim blaming and victim
precipitation.
Victimology – from micro to macro
National Crime Victim Surveys
- Aim: to unveil the dark figure of crime
- Information on victims: socio-demographic characteristics, social settings of the crime, spatial
distribution of victimization
International Crime Victim Survey: large study of victims in different countries ( we can now compare the
results)
- 13 up to 80 countries
- There were differences in surveys
Crime victim surveys
- Surveys were used to solve the dark number problem
- There are many reasons for not reporting:
* too trivial (the offense was to minor to report)
* consequences of reporting (for example: ashamed. Often the case in sexual crimes)
* does not want the perpetrator to be punished (family member or friend)
* does not trust the police and/or judicial system
* nothing to gain
- The willingness to report is declining over the years
,Crime victim surveys – the limitations
- Not all crime types are covered (they use the 10 most common crimes; other crimes are not mentioned)
- Subjectiveness (the victim has to identify as a victim, that’s a subjective process, this can always differ)
- Memory problems; telescoping
* re-call differs per crime: estimates of 90% for theft and 99% for mugging
- Victimless crimes
- Age limit (some are not allowed to be asked questions, <15)
Main risk factors
The results of the surveys also taught us what the main risk factors of victims are. This knowledge can
be used to prevent victimization
- Young age
- Main (capital) city
- Not married
- Outgoing lifestyles
- High education level
These factors didn’t correspond with the idea that we had about victims.
Victimology – Focus on the victim
Politically oriented focus: we should be more interested in the victim during and after the trial. We
should help and assist the victims – Mendelsohn (lecture 4)
- Victim rights
- Victim impact statement (VIS: designed to allow the victims input in the courts decision)
- Victim compensation (attempts to help victims cope with victimization)
- Offender restitution (often results in no result)
- Victim-offender mediation of reconciliation (restorative justice)
- Victim services (slachtofferhulp Nederland)
Important valorization
Victimological theory
The main problem with victimology is that there is no main theory or consensus about how we
should study the crime victim.
A theory is a scheme or system of ideas or statements held as an explanation or account of a group
of facts or phenomena; a statement of what are held to be the general laws, principles, or causes of
something know or observed’.
Social theory embraces a set of interrelated definitions and relationships that organizes our concepts
of and understanding of the empirical world in a systematic way.
It would be difficult to argue that there is a fully coherent victimological theory in that sense, and, at
the very outset, it should perhaps be observed that there is no good reason why so diverse and
complex an entity as victims and victimization should or could be covered by one consolidated set of
arguments.
Other study options
- Qualitative study design Narratives: we ask them to tell their story, what happened and how
they perceived it.
,Overview of victimological theories
Von Hentig – Typology of victims
Thirtien types of victims divided in three categories or classes (based of biological, psychological and
social factors)
1. General class of victims the ideal victim (children, elderly, females, minorities, etc.)
2. Psychological class
* wanton victim (promiscuous person that draws attention to themselves)
* acquisitive victim (greedy: someone who is out for gain)
* tormentor
3. Activating sufferer class (did something to become an easy target)
Mendelsohn’s theory of victimization (ook nog in het laatste artikel van deze week uitgelegd)
1. Completely innocent victim
2. Victim with minor guilt
3. Victim who is as guilty as the offender
4. Victim more guilty than the offender
5. Most guilty victim
6. Imaginary victim
Overview of victimological theories
However…
What stands out looking at these theories?
- Theories mainly based on the criminological perspective
Also, other perspectives on victimization:
- (Social) psychological perspective: coping with victimization and social reactions to victimization
- Justice perspective: what do victims want and victim rights
- International perspective: coping with victims of international crimes (part of critical victimology)
- Communication perspective: political and media portrayal of victims
, Victimology – the future (in het tweede artikel gaat het hier nog wat meer over)
Return back to its original scientific mission, to shed its ideological mantle and to resume its role as a
scholarly discipline as an integral part of criminology
Specific focus:
- Green or environmental victimology
- Mass victimization (genocide and terrorism)
- Victims of cybercrime
- Victim needs
Scientific focus on the victim
Article 1: Victimology: a social science in waiting?
The study of victimization is not unique to modern times. The systematic study of this phenomenon,
however, only arose when victimology was proposed as an alternative to criminology in the 1940s.
The World Society of Victimology define victimology as the scientific study of victims of crime; the
extent, nature and causes of criminal victimization and its consequences for the persons involved as
well as the study of the reactions and treatment of victims of crime. Some do not limit victimology to
the scientific study of victims of crime and their plight.
Conceivably, victimology spans the plight of individuals and collectives of people who suffer
deprivation, disadvantage, loss or injury due to any cause. I t is evident, however, that victims of
crime are widely accepted as within the scope of victimology and that victimologists have put more
effort into studying victims of crime.
Victimology has been, and continues to be, noticeably influenced by its origin, by academic interests
in crime, and by 'law and order' politics as well as by changeable currents of social opinion, with the
result that concern for victims of crime has dominated victimological discourse. Many of the
theoretical concepts are drawn from criminology and then adapted to place the victim at the centre
rather than the criminal. In this article we want to determine whether victimology has attained the
status of a science.
The origin of victimology as a science
Victimology's roots are often attributed to Mendelsohn and von Hentig; the criminologists Wolfgang
and Nagel; and the psychiatrist Wertham. Kirchhoff asserts that this conventional view of the origin
of victimology neglects the much earlier essays of Beccaria that became the foundation of classical
criminology. Beccaria highlighted the plight of victims of abuse of power. Garofolo who, three
decades before Mendelsohn and von Hentig promulgated their ideas can’t be forgotten either.
A review of the history of criminology confirms that there was ‘no place for the pathos and
pains of individual victims’. Hence, there was and remains fertile ground for Mendelsohn's proposal
for a new science that would be the 'reverse' of criminology. Instead of studying the criminal, he
advocated a focus on the 'victim'. Both Mendelsohn and von Hentig put forward their own ‘typology
of victims’, both suggested a need to investigate the part victims play in their victimization.
Like Mendelsohn, Werthem recognized the need for a crime victim-centered science, which he
named victimology. He argued that this new science should concentrate on murderers' victims.
Wolfgang showed that victims and killers are sometimes 'mutual participants in homicide'; in other
words, some victims precipitate their murder. Nagel reported on the victim in the criminal justice
system, and Schafer argued that victims often contribute to crime by their negligence, precipitation,
or provocation. Rock accuses these 'proto-victimologists' of being 'not much more than abstracted
empiricists searching for a theory, a language and academic legitimacy'. Nevertheless, these 'proto-
victimologists' fueled new perspectives leading to new insights about victims and crime. Criminology,
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