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Summary Victimology: study of the victim
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VICTIMOLOGYSUMMARY
Yana Notaert
2023 – 2024 UGENT
,ORIGIN AND CONCEPTS
HISTORY
A THE ORIGIN
Victimology =
The scientific study of the extent, nature, and causes of (criminal) victimization, its consequences for
the individuals involved, and social responses, particularly those of the police, criminal justice
system, as well as voluntary and welfare services
We study what is going on when someone is being victimised
Criminal behind ( ) : if we talk about the victim, should a victim than be recognised as such
because of a crime or do we also talk about victim of an accident
Who should we study?
We talk about social responses => 2 strands
Research, police criminal justice = criminal victimization
More humanistic approach = we are here for the human, it doesn’t matter whether a victim
has been victimised by crime, an accident or even abuse of power. We are here to support
people
Victimology
often considered a subdiscipline of psychiatry, law, social work
Criminologist have had the most impact, especially feminine criminologists of victims
Essential component of offender studies
Integral part of criminogical sciences
WHO IS THE VICTIM?
If we think about society, who do you think is going to be a victim
of violent crime? => Majority said B
Through victimological studies it has been demonstrated that the
one who has more chance of becoming a victim of violent crime is
D
GENERAL LIFE STYLE THEORY
ROUTINE ACTIVITIES THEORY
The chances of becoming a victim is dependent on what you do,
how you behave to others, where you go and what you do in life
The one challenging the other, will be the one who get hit first
Our preconceptions of who is going to become a victim is not who
we think it will be.
A THE ORIGIN
When and where did we start think about victims?
Lombroso ; the early days of criminology
Started studying deviant behaviour: looking at the offenders
o What makes a person go crazy? Why does someone kill another person
Prior 1940 no one cared about victims because they had a passive roll
We need to look at the deviant behaviour
,Leopold Szondi : genotropism (1930)
Theory; reciprocal attraction of the same /similar recessive genes influencing human behaviour
Not been proven
In that sort thinking; being attracted to another, how come you fall in love with another
person, how come you kill another person
o We should look at genes, there is something biological
It started people to think about that victim selection is not necessary at random
There is a thought exercise behind victim selection, not just proximity
Ted Bundy => womanizer ; he killed 36 women in the 70’s
(He was caught and there was something interesting; while he was in prison journalist started
recording and interviewing hem. At some point he said that he could recognise his next victim)
Victim selection:
A matter of opportunity
Ted Bundy claimed that he could identify a potential victim by the way she walks down the
street, the way she carries her head, her body language, etc
o The ideal victim was someone who has already been victimised before
o Due previous victimisation she will be more prone and easier to approach
Question; if Ted Bundy can identify his next victim, can all other psychopaths identify persons who
has been victimised before? => YES
Research confirms that victims exhibit certain typical body language, especially in the way
they walk
Psychopaths are more accurate in recognizing potential victims
This made people think; is there something like victim selection?
Being the wrong person at the wrong time is very often the case but not always
In some cases there is a selection process going on
FIRST MENTION OF ‘VICTIMOLOGY’
30’s ; still nothing about why criminologists would look towards victims to explain crime, to explain
offender behaviour
Mendelsohn (1947) => during the presentation of a paper
Was one of the first people who said; we need the study of victimology to better understand
the crime and the reasons, motivations of the offender
He is the spiritual father of the victim movement
Werthem (1949) => advocates for a ‘crime victim-centered’ science
we need to look at the behaviour off the people who get murdered prior to the incident,
perhaps the victim had to do something with the victimisation
focused particularly on murder; how come people get murdered?
Von Hentig (1941, 1948) => first systematic investigation into crime victims
book; the criminal and his victim part 4; the victims contribution to the genesis of the crime
o victimology today; looking at the causes, the consequences, how can we help, how
can we support them ?
before the 40’s
early victimologist wanted to know about crime and the offender
victims were considered to be passive; wrong person in the wrong place
Book van Von hentig => first time that someone is actively studying how a victim contributes to his
own victimisation
how does crime occur and is it also related to the victim and the victim behaviour?
, “The law considers certain results and the final moves which lead to them. Here it makes a clear-cut
distinction between the one who does and the one who suffers. Looking into the genesis of the
situation, in a considerable number of cases, we meet a victim who consents tacitly, cooperates,
conspires, or provokes. The victim is one of the causative elements"
consents tacitly ; stilzwijgende toestemmen
conspires ; samenzweren
provokes ; uitdagen
criminal law, police => focused on the perpetrator (the person who did something, who broke the
social contract)
Von hentig
said in his study; we don’t always see a passive victim, sometimes a victim agreed to become
a victim, helped the perpetrator to become a victim, conspires to become a victim, or
provokes
difference between victim blaming and the assessment of the genesis of a crime
we are interested in the reason why someone become a victim here we also have to look the
victim behaviour with a neutral point of view
interesting to also look at the behaviour of the victims
A THE ORIGIN
50’s => victimologist didn’t call themself victomologist. They were sociologists, criminologists,…
Started a number of theoretical studies on victim types, the relationship between victim and
offender, the role victims play in certain criminal phenomena
Also a number of empirical studies: murder, rape, theft, assault, fraud, extortion => looking at the
profiles of the victims
Martin Wolfgang (1957) => victim precipitated criminal homicide
door slachtoffer veroorzaakte criminele moord
he studied 588 murder cases
26% of the cases where the victim who was the first to engage the violence
Without the violence from the victim perhaps the victim would not have been murdered
Victim contributes to an extents to the victimisation; is not neutral but did something to
become a victim
Menachem amir (1967) => victim precipitated forcible rape
Door het slachtoffer veroorzaakt gewelddadige verkrachting
He looked into cases, at records of the police and tried to recreate the incidents + look who
did what
o He found some indication of active contribution and passive contribution to
becoming a victim of rape
Active; the victim accepted a drink from a stranger by example
Passive; not reacting strongly enough to sexual advances
Turned into victim blaming; he wanted to know how the incidents happened without
blaming the victim, wanted to know how the role of victim came into play
o Very thin line!!
o Trigger of feminist reaction; there is never an excuse for rape
1970’s victim precipitation was increasingly seen as victim blaming
There is never an explaining that could justify the reaction of the offender
If we want to understand why crime happens we don’t have to look only at the offender we
also have to look at what a victim does
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