Victimology: Exploring the Experience of Victimization

The Emergence of Victimology For every criminal act, there is at least one victim. Victimology: A subfield of criminology that specializes in studying the victims of crime.

Who Gets Victimized Victimization is not a random process; it is a process encompassing a host of systematic environmental, demographic, and personal characteristics. Victim characteristics differ according to the type of crime.

Table 16.1 Victimization Rates of Combined Violent and Personal Theft Crimes by Selected Demographic Characteristics –2004 Gender Rate Household Income Male 25.0 Less than $7,500 38.4 Female 18.1 39.0 $15,000–$24,999 24.4 $7,500–$14,999 Race/Ethnicity $25,000–$34,999 22.1 White 21.0 $35,000–$49,999 21.6 Black 26.0 $50,000–$74,999 Hispanic 18.2 $75,000 or more 17.0 Other 2.7 Two or more 51.6 Marital Status Never married 39.4 Age Married 9.7 12–15 49.7 Divorced/separate 33.0 16–19 45.9 Widowed 4.0 20–24 43.0 25–34 23.7 Residence 35–49 7.9 Urban 29.0 50–64 11.0 Suburban 18.0 65 or older 2.1 Rural 19.9

Victimization in the Workplace and School On average, over two million incidents take place in the workplace annually. The three occupations most at risk are: police officers, correction officers, and taxi drivers. Schools are some of the safest places we can be. Teachers get victimized by both theft and violence at school.

Table 16.2 Average Annual Number of Violent Victimizations in the Workplace 1992-1996 Annual Average % Homicide 1,023 0.05 Rape/sexual assault 50,500 2.50 Robbery 83,700 4.20 Aggravated assault 395,500 19.70 Simple assault 1,480,000 73.60 2,010,723 100.00 Source: Workplace violence, 1992-1996. Warchol (1998).

Figure 16.1 Number of Homicides and Suicides of Youth Ages 15-19 at and Away from School: 1999-2000 Source: DeVoe et al., Indicators of school crime and safety: 2003 (2003). U.S. Departments of Education and Justice.

Figure 16.2 Percentage of Students ages 12-18 who Reported being Bullied During Previous Six Months, by Grade: 1999 and 2001 Source: DeVoe et al., Indicators of school crime and safety: 2003 (2003). U.S. Departments of Education and Justice.

Child Molestation: Who gets Victimized? Child molestation is perhaps the most prevalent crime against the person in the United States. Girls are more likely to be abused within the family, and boys are more likely to be victimized by acquaintances outside of the family and by strangers. The strongest single predictor of victimization for girls is having a stepfather. The strongest predictor for boys is growing up in a father-absent home.

Victimization Theories Victimization can occur at any time, at any place, and totally without warning. In the majority of cases of victimization, victims are now seen as individuals who in some way, knowingly or unknowingly, passively or actively, influenced their victimization.

Victim Precipitation Theory Von Hentig (1941)—by acting in certain provocative ways, some individuals initiate a chain of events that lead to their victimization. Victim precipitation theory has been most contentious when it is applied to rape.

Figure 16.4 Four Scenarios Illustrating the Degree of Victim/Offender Responsibility According to Victim Precipitation Theory Degree of Criminal Intent of the Perpetrator None  Some  More  Much Victim Provocation A woman who has suffered years of abuse stabs and kills her husband in self-defense as he is beating her again. Equal Responsibility Victim using the services of a prostitute leaves his wallet on the bed stand and leaves. She decides to keep the money in his wallet. Victim Facilitation Victim leaves keys in his car while he runs into a store. A teenager impulsively steals the car and wrecks it. Victim Innocent A sex offender kidnaps a screaming young girl from a playground and molests her. Much  More  Some  None Degree of Victim Facilitation or Provocation/Precipitation

Routine Activities/Lifestyle Theory The basic idea of lifestyle theory is that there are certain lifestyles that disproportionately expose some people to high risk for victimization. Lifestyles are the routine patterned activities that people engage in on a daily basis, both obligatory and optional. Most of the research in routine activities/lifestyle theory has been done on rape victimization.

Is Victimology Blaming the Victim Some victim advocates strongly reject victimology theories as victim blaming. Victimologists do not blame, they simply remind us that complete innocence and full responsibility lie on a continuum.

The Consequences of Victimization Overall, financial looses per crime do not appear overly large. The worst consequences are psychological. Rape trauma syndrome: Re-experiencing the event via flashbacks, avoiding anything at all associated with the event, and a general numbness or affect. Violent victimization helps to shape the life course trajectories of victims.

Victimization and the Criminal Justice System Advocates for victims’ rights began agitating for some of the same kinds of due process rights for victims that are enjoyed by their victimizers in the late 1960s, but it was not until 1982 that a federal task force was set up to examine the treatment of victims by the criminal justice system. The fair and decent treatment of victims by the system can help them to some extent to get over their victimization.

Figure 16.5 Percentage of Adolescent Victims and Non-victims of Violence Expected to Experience Adult Problem Outcomes Source: Menard (2002). Short-and long-term consequences of adolescent victimization

Focus on Victim’s Opinions Of the Importance of Victims’ Rights Box 16.2 Focus on Victim’s Opinions Of the Importance of Victims’ Rights Source: D. Kilpatrick, Beatty, & Smith-Howley (1998). The Rights of Crime Victims. National Institute of Justice.

Victim Compensation and Restitution Victims of crime are eligible for partial compensation from the states to cover medical and living expenses incurred as a result of their victimization. Victim compensation in the form of direct payments from the offenders in the form of restitution is increasingly ordered by the courts.

Victim-Offender Reconciliation Programs (VORPs) VORPs are an integral component of restorative justice philosophy. Central to the VORP process is the bringing together of victim and offender in face-to-face meetings mediated by a person trained in mediation theory and practice. VORPs are used most often in the juvenile system but rarely used for personal violent crimes in juvenile or adult systems.