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Notities Victimology and the Criminal Justice System (C02A0A)
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VictimologyIntroduction
Les 1 & 2 – 2/10/2023 14u
Gent
Angel shot
Connection ?
Foto 1: Concert Paris Bataclan.
Foto 2: Inspiration for jihad
terrorism
Nietzsche
Overview of coming lectures:
History
The word victim
‘Victim’ coms from the Latin word for a lamb.
Victim in Dutch is a literal translation => ‘slachtoffer’
Who is the victim?
Becoming a victim: risk and labelling
Risk of victimisation.
Homicide rate
The consequences of victimisation
Victims in action
BLM
Reacting to victimisation
Victim blaiming
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, Victim policy: restorative justice
Victim policy: criminal justice
Protecting victims’ rights
Victimology: history and perspectives
Les 3 & 4 - 9 October
In this lecture we will look at different perspectives on victimology:
• International legal perspectives
• Criminological perspectives
• Social psychological perspectives
• Justice perspectives
• Clinical psychological perspectives
• Critical perspectives
Document on Toledo from Christie belongs here!
• Narrative perspectives
International legal perspectives:
The crime of genocide
≠ not in the book. But can also been seen as a starting
point of victimology.
The building (in the picture) = near Berlin, near Großer Wannsee (= a lake).
> in that building the top of the nazi’s had a meeting where they came up with the final solution for
the Jews.
Is also related to the map:
Armenian genocide
1918 the young Turkish people tried to genocide Armenia.
Hitler said ‘who today remembers the Armenians?’
The idea of the final solution: wipe all the jews and make sure people wouldn’t remember them.
The reason why 1948 could also be the start of victimology (related to WOII)
= the date that the term genocide became a legal term.
Due to the genocide convention and Lemkin.
1948: could also be the start of victimology from this point.
Primo Levi
He survived Auschwitz
He wrote a lot of books about his experiences
that can also be seen in relation with victimology.
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, • Truth commissions most well-known Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South
Africa
• International Criminal Tribunals of Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s
• Rome-statute 1998
• Supranational victimology/ criminology: very recent most work in this area does not
refer to victimology
--- That’s an alternative history for victimology!
Criminological perspectives
Now the real history of victimology:
Mendelsohn = also Jewish
used the term ‘victimology’ already in a paper in related to the position victims
in criminal law.
Hans Von Hentig
Fled to the US from the Nazi’s in Germany
Wrote a book: ‘The criminal and his victim’ in 1948
Seen as the start point of victimology as an academic discipline!!
His inspiration was only from WOI. He was during that war in de German army.
He asked himself this question:
‘why in history has everyone always focused on the guy with the big stick, the hero, the
activist, to the neglect of the poor slob who is at the end of the stick, the victim, the passivist
– or maybe, the poor slob (in bandages) isn’t all that much of a passivist victim – maybe he
asked for it?’
A lot of people will think now that victimology is positive towards victims.
<-> victim blaming
Von Hentig thought that there was to much attention for the offenders and not enough for
the victims.
Victim precipitation:
Role of the victim in the event of crime
> here was Von Hentig interested in!
Positive: how can (potential) victims protect themselves, see also crime prevention.
Negative: should we blame the victim for his or her conduct?
Example: Amir wrote a book: Patterns in Forcible Rape (1973)
- Emphasized the role of victims of rape in their victimization
During second period of feminism
They said you can’t say that the people who are raped are part of their own
victimisation.
- Victimological risk analysis: who runs the most risk of being victimized?
= we might be able then to prevent that.
Who is more likely to be a victim?
~ the young men because…
3
, - The young men is more in environments/area’s where the
chance to be a victim is higher
- The young men is more likely to start a fight himself. <->
grandmother; will prefer leaving a bad situation
- The fact that you are in the environment of people who are
more likely to commit a crime make the risk of being a victim
higher.
- Alcohol and drugs increases the risk of committing a crime but
also of becoming a victim of a crime.
Other main issues in criminological victimology:
- Fear of crime
= how frighten are people of crime?
= the fact that ur scared to become a victim means that the chance of becoming a victim is
higher.
- Impact of victimization on punitiveness
= what people ….
- Repeat victimization
How do we know these things? How do we start to investigate these things?
= crime victim surveys.
Main purpose?
Measure the volume (prevalence and incidence) of crime, including the “dark number”.
Other limitations of official statistics?
• The dark number
• Not all crimes are reported or detected by police
• Not all reported crimes are duly1 recorded
• Many crimes rely on victim reports
• How many crimes remain hidden/how many victims of crime are there???
• Accuracy
• Differences in/ changes in definitions
• Depend on willingness/ ability to register
• Can be manipulated police
> (not sure:) manipulated by police to make it look like the amount of crime
increases in the year of elections.
• Difficulties for cross-country comparison and understanding trends
• Lack of variables for further study
Well no….
• Much depends on the questions asked!
For instance: study: prevalence of sexual violence in Belgium
Pieters et al 2010 life time prevalence 5,6% women and 0,8% man
1
properly
4
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