Victimology

Megan Neaves and Joshua Barnes

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http://www.azquotes.com/quote/1184747
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Victimology: What is it?

- Victimology as an academic term contains two different elements:
- Victima latin which translates to victim
- Logos- greek word meaning a system of knowledge, or the direction of teaching,
science, and a discipline.

- Separated into several different fields of focus, such as child

victimology, terrorism victimology, etc.

Some key concepts of

Victimology
- Victim is recognized as a person who should be made whole again
by the offender

- Crime Victim- a person who has been physically, mentally,or

financially injured
- Vulnerability- a physical, psychological, social, or financial condition
where a person has a weakness which could render them a victim if
someone else finds out
- Restorative Justice- emphasizes healing the injuries that resulted
from the crime and affected the victims, offenders, and communities
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Key Concepts cont.

- Victim Trauma- emotional and physical experiences that produce
pain and injuries
- Compensation- administrative procedure which provides ONLY
money to victims for out of pocket real expenses
- Restitution- judicial procedure after guilt is determined as a part of a
sentence which gives money or other services
- Victim Rights- privileges and procedures required by law which
guarantee victims specific considerations/treatment by the criminal
justice system
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History
- The rise of the study of a victim has been tremendous in the past 60
or so years
- Benjamin Mendelsohn started the scientific study of victims of
crime, and introduced the science of the victim

How do you decide who is a

victim?
4 factors to take into consideration to understand victimization:
1.The Offender
2. The victim
3.The police
4.The social control

Current Controversy with Victimology

- One of the main questions when it comes to victimology is whether
the focus has stayed solely on victims of crime, or whether the view
has broadened to include social victims of other types of
oppression.
- Another thing to take into consideration is about the cause or
reason for injury/loss: whether it is natural cause or human
behavior; or intentional behavior instead of accident

Positive Victimology
- Miers argues that to identify the predominate factors inherent
in individuals contributing to becoming a victim, as well as the
focus on interpersonal crimes while identifying the victims
precipitation
- Positivist Victimologists focuses on the victim, and the sociocultural factors that are most likely to be present in the
creation of a victim in any situation
- These main issues are often the reason people become victims
more than others.

Free Definition
- Based on having so much grey area with the term victimology,
Landau and Freeman-Longo has created a free definition of the term

- Victim: any individual, group, or institution harmed or damaged by others or

events who/which may or may not perceive himself as such or is to be recognized
by others as a victim

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Problems with Freeman-Longo and Landaus

Definition
- The problems that arose with the free definition for positive
victimology is that there is no suffering or feelings involved

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Radical Victimology
-Traced back o Benjamin Mendelsohn
-Offspring of both Radical Criminology and Radical Sociology
- This theory assumes that society is a subset of many different
conflicting groups, and that laws are designed to support the economic
structure
-Also this theory states that problems in society (crime, poverty, and
victimization) can be solved only by changes in social order in general

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Critial Victimology
-Developed by Mawby and Walklate
- An attempt to examine the wider social context of victimology
- Involves analyzing the policy response and service delivery to victims
of the crime
- Developed around and influenced by the critical criminology founded
in 1970s

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References

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