midterm 3666

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8/18/2015

Prepared by Emily Berthelot, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

CHAPTER ONE

WHAT IS

VICTIMOLOGY?

1. To practice looking at victims and victimization

through a scientific lens.

2. To appreciate why objectivity is worth striving

for when examining victims‟ rights.

3. To discover why some people have a negative

impression about what they brand as

victimology.

Learning Objectives

4. To be able to recognize how victimology is

similar to as well as different from criminology.

5. To become familiar with the steps to follow

when conducting a victim-centered analysis.

Learning Objectives

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VICTIMOLOGY

“Scientific study of the physical,

emotional, and financial harm people

endure because of illegal activities.”

Included in this definition is how victims are handled

by criminal justice agencies and officials.

VICTIMOLOGY

 Victims—Individuals who suffer injuries, losses, or hardships for any reason

 Crime Victims—Above as result of an illegal act

 Direct/Primary Victims—Experience criminal act and its consequences firsthand

 Indirect/Secondary Victims—Family and loved ones those who might be burdened but are not immediately involved. Can also include care-givers and first responders

Studying Victimization Scientifically

 Subjective Approach

 Issues are approached from standpoint of morality, ethics, philosophy, personalized reactions, and intense emotions.

 Objective Approach

 Requires observer to be fair, open-minded, evenhanded, dispassionate, neutral, and unbiased.

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Studying of Victimization Scientifically

 Why should victimologists NOT be pro-victim?

 “Ideal Type”: person who suffered harm was

weaker in comparison to the apparent

aggressor, acting virtuously or not looking for

trouble or breaking any laws, and wrongdoer

was a complete stranger acting illegally and

was unprovoked

Victims or Offenders?

 Who is the victim and who is the offender?

 Not always clear cut—consider the following:

 Menendez Brothers

 John and Lorena Bobbitt

 The dynamics between victims and victimizers need

to be sorted out in an even-handed and open-

minded manner—objectively.

Criminals as Victims

 Victims not always “innocent.”

 Examples:  Martin/Zimmerman “stand your ground” case

 Young woman fatally shot while seeking assistance after being involved in a car accident

 Victim of repeated domestic abuse found guilty of aggravated assault after firing warning shots

 The designations "victim" and "offender" are not always at opposite poles but sometimes can be pictured as overlapping.

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Victims vs. “Good Guys”

 Victimologists do not limit their studies to

clashes between victims and offenders.

 They also consider the social reaction to

victimization.

 Victims are often “used” by other parties

 Victims pitted against one another

 Media portrayal of crimes

 Political officials with competing policies

The Challenge of Objectivity

 Research, policy analysis, and program

evaluations must tell the whole truth

regardless of who is disappointed or

insulted.

 Three types of biases undermine the

ability of any social scientist to achieve

objectivity and draw conclusions based on

Three Types of Bias

1. May arise from personal experience,

taking the form of individual preferences

and prejudices.

2. Derives from the legacy of the discipline

itself.

 Pioneers in the study of victimology first introduced

the concept of victim-blaming

 Today, majority of victimologists are pro-victim

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Three Types of Bias

3. A subtle bias traced back to the mood

of the times.

 60s-70s: a demand for government to

devise ways to help victims get back on their

feet financially, medically, and emotionally

 80s: a theme of “strive for self-reliance,”

“reduce social spending,” and “cut taxes”

gained popularity

Victimology‟s Undeserved

“Bad Reputation”

 Victimology is a new academic discipline that only means “the objective study of crime victims.”

 It is focused on the research about people harmed by criminals.

 It does not impose a partisan point of view or a set or predictably biased conclusions.

 The ideology of “victimism” is a coherent, integrated set of beliefs that shapes interpretations and leads to political action.

Victimology‟s Undeserved

“Bad Reputation”

 Victimology during the 90s and into the

twentieth century has become a “dirty word”

to many people.

 Do not confuse “victimism” with “victimology.”

 “Victimology” is often misused, when the

author intends to describe “victimism.” The

next slide is an example of mis-using the

word “victimology.”

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Victimology‟s Undeserved

“Bad Reputation”

 A news magazine commentator

complained, “We are deep into the era

of the abuse excuse. The doctrine of

victimology—claiming victim status means

you are not responsible for your actions—

is beginning to warp the legal system.”

(Leo, 1994)

The Origins of Victimology

 Box 1.2 provides highlights in the brief

history of Victimology and Victim

Assistance.

 Significant gains in the United States

when the President‟s Commission on Law

Enforcement and the Administration of

Justice urged criminologists to pay more

Victimology vs. Criminology

 Victimology is best viewed as a subdiscipline

of specialization within criminology

 Criminology can be defined as

encompassing the scientific study of illegal

activities, offenders, their victims, criminal law

and the criminal justice system, and societal

reactions to the crime problem

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Victimology vs. Criminology

 Criminologists ask why certain individuals

become involved in lawbreaking while

others do not.

 Victimologists ask why some individuals,

households, and entities are targeted

while others are not.

Victimology vs. Criminology

 Criminologists apply their findings to devise local, regional, and national crime prevention strategies.

 Victimologists scrutinize patterns and trends to develop victimization prevention strategies and risk-reduction tactics.

 Both criminologists and victimologists study how the criminal justice system actually operates versus how it is supposed to work.

Victimology vs. Criminology

 Boundaries

 Boundaries are clear cut for Criminology

 Boundaries for Victimology still unclear

 Overlap due to lack of boundaries

 Crime rates vs. victimization rates

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Divisions Within The Discipline

 Conservative Influence

 Focuses primarily on street crimes

 Everyone to be held strictly accountable for their decisions and actions

 Emphasis on self reliance, NOT governmental assistance

 Personal responsibility for preventing, avoiding, resisting and recovering from criminal acts

 Punish offenders on behalf of victims

Divisions Within The Discipline

 Liberal Influence

 Scope of field to extend beyond street

crimes to include corporate corruption

 Endorse societal intervention via the

government

 Extend „safety net‟ mechanisms for all kinds

of misfortunes, including crime

 Make wrongdoers repay their victims to

Divisions Within The Discipline

 Radical/Critical/Conflict Influence

 Victimization is a result of and exploitative

and oppressive social system

 Looks toward societal factors such as

poverty, unemployment, language barriers,

etc. as explanations behind crime

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What Victimologists Do

 Victimologists explore the interactions

between victims and offenders, victims

and the criminal justice system, and victims

and society.

 Victimologists study the ways in which

crime victims are harmed, including

physical injury, psychological trauma, and

What Victimologists Do

 Step 1: Identify, Define, and Describe the Problem

 Step 2: Measure the True Dimensions of the Problem

 Step 3: Investigate How Victims Are Handled

 Step 4: Gather Evidence to Test Hypotheses

Four step process victimologists follow

when carrying out their research:

Why Study Victimology?

 Intellectual benefits

 Expansion of horizons

 Practical applications that ease suffering of

others and provide a sense of purpose, worth,

accomplishment, and satisfaction

 To obtain a complete understanding and

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Survivorology?

 The observation that victimology‟s

unavoidable preoccupation with suffering

can and should be balanced out by

another more positive and upbeat line of

inquiry

 Concepts of resiliency and recovery