Resume
Samenvatting Victimology (GESLAAGD)
- Établissement
- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven)
Engelstalige samenvatting van de hoorcolleges van prof. Pemberton
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1VICTIMOLOGY
WEEK 1: INTRODUCTION
RESEARCH ON VICTIMS AND SOCIETY
Narrative victimology
Cultural victimology
Justice processes, including and in particular restorative justice
Cybervictimology and green victimology
Political violence, terrorism and international crimes
Connection between academia and practice: history with victim support
Ethics of victimology
RESEARCH ON HUMAN RESPONSES TO INJUSTICE
Emotions in restorative justice
Governance and organization of restorative justice
Culture and restorative justice
VICTIMOLOGY: HISTORY AND PERSPECTIVES
Since when?
33 AD: wrong, the year of the crucifixion of Jesus
1885: wrong, the birth of criminology
1948: right
1985: wrong, the UN made the first law on this
THE WORD VICTIM?
Connection between a lamb and Jesus: the lamb was sacrificed just as Jesus sacrificed himself, they were the 'first victims' and
this is where the Latin word 'victima' comes from, a sacrificed animal. In English, this is also the literal translation: slaughter-
sacrifice, a sacrifice that has been slaughtered. Victims are sacrificial animals.
WHO IS THE VICTIM?
Domestic abuse – until death do us part. There are not only female but also male victims, we sometimes frame it differently in
different campaigns in order to reach certain victims. The woman is an 'ideal' victim.
The picture on the right: Kill Bill is a revenge film
RISK OF VICTIMISATION
We see European countries on the murder chart, the countries with the highest rank
are less safe than the countries with a lower rank. Most domestic violence occurs in
Sweden! But they also report the most, so that's why it's so high.
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AFTERMATH BY SUSAN J. BRISON
EXCERPT 1 ABOUT SEXUAL ASSAULT AND ATTEMPTED MURDER
There was a woman who was attacked, sexually assaulted and more than one attempt of murder on her. She was not allowed to
drink some water while being examined and interrogated which you could think would be normal/humane. She felt ashamed of
herself while she did nothing wrong and she felt better by saying it was an attempted murder instead of sexually assault that
resulted in a murder, because people will ask what the motive would be.
What struck me?
Importance of different feelings and different emotions: she feels shame, anxiety, people felt angry at her
The importance of victims’ experiences with criminal justice actors: she must do a lot of exams (for example forensic,
gynecological)
The way these influences and interacts with the primary experience of victimization
The way others react to victimization:
o The importance of explanations and sense-making
o The difference/conflict between the reaction of the social surroundings and the victims’ experiences: try to
listen first!
Importance of the way people experience their own victimization: ‘phenomenology’ of victimization, how people
understand their own experiences
Shame is important! Victimization is intertwined with the way how people feel about it.
EXCERPT 2: VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Two pictures of a woman which are both the same picture
What struck me?
Societal reaction to victimization
o You must have done something to deserve it
o ‘Just world theory’: people keep their distance from victimized people
Victimization statistics: how do we know that only one in ten rapes are reported? Because we do victim surveys and
they will make up a piece of the dark number only 1/10 rapes are reported
The International crime Victim survey
o Jan van Dijk (emeritus professor INTERVICT and former policy maker in the Netherlands and the UN
o First survey in 1966 in US, from 1972 onwards nationally
o In 1973 in the Netherlands, 1989 ICVS
o Winner of the Stockholm-prize 2012 (sort of Nobel prize for criminology)
Typical crime stories? We can’t remember any victim that has been in these shows, we tend to look at crime through
the eyes of either the eyes of the person who commits the crime or the person who solves it, but not the victim
The conflicting demands of viewing victimization:
o Sympathy for the victim, distress and aversion for the situation
o Recognition of the need for relief and restoration, but lack of practical abilities to do so
Rape in USA: every 6 minutes (only reported!), every 15 seconds a woman is beat. Male violence against women is ‘natural’.
Women are immune, men don’t do anything ‘foolish’. Men do a lot of victim-blaming: if you got attacked, you did something
wrong. Men don’t empathize with victims. Little concern for justice for (rape) victims, victims have no right to speak. Because
women speak up for their victimization, they lose their jobs and homes.
VICTIMS IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
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The good: procedural justice, victims rights, restorative justice The bad: victim blaming, secondary victimization
WEEK 2: VICTIMOLOGY – HISTORY AND PERSPECTIVES
THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE
In Berlin they held meetings with the top of the Nazis, there was a speech given by Hitler in which he said that Armenia was
actually irrelevant and you would not remember who they were. Genocide was therefore committed: an attack on people with a
different cultural background in order to exterminate/kill them. In the Genocide convention it was even said that genocide was
legal, but in 1948 it was considered that this was an international crime, a crime against humanity.
INTERNATIONAL LEGAL PERSPECTIVES
Truth commissions most well-known Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa
International Criminal Tribunals of Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s
Rome-statue 1998
Supranational victimology/criminology: very recent most work in this area does not refer to victimology
Benjamin Mendelsohn was a Rumanian Lawyer and he coined the word victimology
HANS VON HENTIG
German professor
Fled to the US from Nazi-Germany
‘The criminal and his victim’ from 1946
Seen to be the founder of victimology
Hans Von Hentig is seen as the founder of victimology. It was a German professor of criminal law, who had been in the German
army during World War I. Hitler asked him if he would not get a high position in the NSDAP. Not only did he not do it, but
immediately fled to the U.S. as a result, and wrote the book The Criminal and His Victim in 1948, partly because of the horrors of
World War II. That book is seen as the starting point of victimology, although in chapter it was about the perpetrator.
VICTIM PRECIPITATION
Von Hentig: ‘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?’
Role of the victim in the event of crime
Positive: how can (potential) victims protect themselves, see also crime prevention
Negative: should we blame the victim for his or her conduct?
Von Hentig did, however, question whether the study of crime was not too one-sided: it was only about the perpetrators of
crime and neglected the role played by the victims. So, for him it is not so much about the consequences of victimization, like
much of the victimology after him, or about the causes in general, but about the role that individual victims play in the creation
of crime. From the point of view of victims, this 'victim precipitation' has positive aspects, prevention of crime, and the strength
of the victims' assumption. But also negative sides: can blame victims: ask for it.
EXAMPLES OF THE NEGATIVE AND THE POSITIVE
Amir: Patterns in Forcible Rape (1973)
Emphasized the role of victims of rape in their victimization
Victimological risk analysis: who runs the most risk of being victimized?
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WHO IS MORE LIKELY VICTIM?
The charming lady on the left is a 75-year-old resident of Renkum, she likes to play bridge, lives with her husband in a house
near the woods. And on the right is her grandson: studies social sciences in Utrecht, lives in student rooms, goes out three or
four times a week.
The grandson is more likely to become a victim, he is more likely to be in places where he can be a victim and encounters crime
more (e.g. taking drugs). The grandson is also younger, but because he must defend himself a bit more against crime, he also has
a knife in his pocket. These are often people who are sometimes perpetrators themselves but also become victims.
So, the victim profile does not always correspond to stereotypes!
OTHER MAIN ISSUES IN CRIMINOLOGICAL VICTIMOLOGY
Fear of crime
Impact of victimization on punitiveness
Repeat victimization
How do we know these things? The answer is crime victim surveys.
What is the main purpose of crime victim surveys? To measure the volume (prevalence and incidence) of crime, including the
‘dark number’
LIMITATIONS OF OFFICIAL STATISTICS
The dark number
o Not all crimes are reported or detected by police
o Not all reported crimes are duly recorded
o Many crimes rely on victim reports
o How many crimes remain hidden/how many victims of crime are there?
Accuracy
o Differences in/changes in definitions
o Depend on willingness/ability to register
o Can be manipulated police
Difficulties for cross-country comparison and understanding trends
Lack of variables for further study
ALL PROBLEMS SOLVED? NO!
Much depends on the questions asked
For instance: prevalence of sexual violence in Belgium
Pieters et al 2010: lifetime prevalence 5,6% women and 0,8% men
Schapanksy et al 2021: lifetime prevalence 81% women and 47% men
Why? Schapansky et al used behavior specific questions: ‘Has anyone kissed you against your will? Has anyone undressed you
against your will?’ instead of ‘Were you raped?’ if you describe them, a lot of people will confirm it happened to them
CRIMINOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
Starting point for criminological perspectives on victimization
o How much crime is there, and what role do victims play in crime?
o Largely relatively routine forms of crime
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