Victimology is the scientific study of victims and victimization, it focuses on criminal victimization, victim-offender relationships, and victim precipitation. One issue within this field is the treatment and support of victims, leading to re-victimization, emotional trauma, and a lack of justice. Many victims encounter insensitive questioning, a lack of information, and disregard for their rights. This poor treatment can deter them from reporting crimes and participating in the legal process, undermining the pursuit of justice. The impact of this problem is felt most by those who have experienced violent crimes, but it is also prominent for marginalized groups who face systemic barriers to justice due to racism, sexism, and classism. Racial, …show more content…
Addressing this complex issue requires a multi-faceted solution. The first step is to adopt a victim-centered approach that prioritizes victims’ rights, needs, and voices. This shift involves ensuring that victims receive clear information about legal processes, their rights, and available support services. By putting victims at the center of the process, they are more likely to feel heard and valued. A critical aspect of this solution is implementing trauma-informed training for law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and court personnel. Understanding the impact of trauma on victims will help professionals approach their work with empathy and sensitivity. This training should also reduce re-victimization by minimizing invasive or insensitive questioning and encouraging a supportive environment. Another key component is establishing specialized victim support units within police departments and courts. These units will consist of counselors, trained social workers, and victim advocates who can provide emotional support and guide victims through the often overwhelming legal
Young, M. (1999) Restorative community justice in the United States: A new paradigm. International Review of Victimology, 6, p265-277.
Victimology is the scientific study of the physical, emotional, and financial harm people suffer from illegal activities. A common struggle Victimologists face is determining who the victim is. In general, crimes don 't have an “ideal victim”. The term ideal victims refer to someone who receives the most sympathy from society (Christie, 2016). An example of this would be a hardworking, honest man who on his way to work, had his wallet taken by force. Most people in society would have sympathy for him. He spent his life making an honest living to earn what he has and was a victim of a robbery. Victimologists study the interactions victims have with criminals, society, and the criminal justice system (Karmen, 2015). According to (Karmen, 2015)
The State of Texas and TCFV along with the city of Houston have recently hosted a program called “Partner to Protect: A Leadership Summit for Family Violence Programs and Law Enforcement.” This conference was formed to help victim advocates and law enforcement come up with better ways to respond to family violence in the community. The summit allowed advocated and law enforcement to share their expertise on domestic violence while explaining the in’s and out’s of associated with their jobs in order to help victims better understand any type of flaws that could happen during and emergency situation.
When the victim does not fit the ideal victim attributes which society has familiarised themselves with, it can cause complications and confusion. Experts have noticed there is already a significant presence of victim blaming, especially for cases involving both genders. The fear of being blamed and rejected by the public is prominent in all victims. Victim blaming proclaims the victim also played a role in the crime by allowing the crime to occur through their actions (Kilmartin and Allison, 2017, p.21). Agarin (2014, p.173) underlines the problem of victim blaming is due to the mass of social problems and misconceptions within society. The offender can have “an edge in court of public opinion” if victim blaming exists, resulting in the prevention of the case accomplishing an effective deduction in court (Humphries, 2009, p.27). Thus, victims will become more reluctant to report offences because of their decrease in trust in the police and criminal justice system, leading to the dark figure of
Victimology is a scientific research and study with insights on the issues and patterns of victimization. These issues lead to inquiries regarding relationships of the parties, the vulnerabilities of the victim, and the attacker’s affect upon the victim and the other individuals that surrounded said victim. Understanding the relationships, the victim, the attacker, and the crime open up theories to patterns developed from such victimization. Moving through this process in preparing, equipping, and training for said crimes enhances
Secondly, dominant ideologies in the media represent criminals as demoralized and dangerous individuals while, on the other hand, police officers are depicted as “honest and heroic public servants” (Hirschfield and Simon 2010: 155). In turn, these forms of ideologies lead to individuals blaming the victims for their experienced abuse. In addition, according to William Ryan (1976: 3) the formula for blaming the victim is, “justifying inequality by finding defects in the victims of inequality”. In other words, blaming the victim occurs when the victim of a crime is held accountable for the violence that they endured. Thus, the victim of the crime is blamed for his or her suffering. In addition, as mentioned above, dominant ideologies which
With my past social work experience I understand that trauma can affect many people in different ways. Traumatic life experiences can vary with everyone and their way of coping and reacting. I worked a children services for about two years. I have been able to witness the effects of trauma on a lot of the children I worked with. For example, I had to remove 5 children from their mother. Their mother was using meth at the time leaving the oldest child, who was thirteen years old, taking care of the youngest. The mother was in an abusive relationship with their father. The father was very emotionally abusing by threatening the kids and mother. Removing the children from their mother was a traumatic life experience.
Victimology can be defined as the claim that a person or a group of people undergo problems, due to victimization. This could be any sort of crime or discrimination against race, sex, gender and even income. Since social media is a transparent source of voicing everybody’s opinion, victimology has become stronger over the past years. Everyone claims to be a victim of some element of society. For example, racial victimology has spiked up ever since the shooting incident of Fergusson, Missouri. Social media has exaggerated the extent of racism involved in this incident. There have been so many opinions and thoughts shared about this story, that it is impossible to access the real incident underneath all these layers. People have been sharing posts and articles about similar racial discrimination ever since, where white
First we need to look at what is Victimology and where did it come from? The origins of Victimology can be traced back to the 1940’s to the 1950’s and early 1960’s it erupted after World War II to seek and understand the relationship between criminal and victim. It began when criminologist had came together to examine the victims of crime at a university. ‘Criminology is the science upon which victimology is founded’ (Wallace; Roberson 2) and when two criminologists, “The founding fathers of Victimology” Mendelsohn and Von Hentig first began the field of victimology by using charts and analysis of different types of crimes of victims. They studied the behaviors and vulnerabilities of victims like, rape victims and murder victims. How some of the ways that some of us can relate to of what a victim is. As Wallace; Roberson writes:
Over the years, the traditional criminal justice system has emphasized offenders’ accountability through punishment and stigmatization. The emphasis on the retributive philosophy made it challenging for the system to meaningfully assist and empower crime victims. In the criminal justice system, victims often face insensitive treatment with little or no opportunity for input into the perseverance of their case and report feeling voiceless in the process used (Choi, Gilbert, & Green, 2013:114). Crime victims, advocates, and practitioners have called for an expansion of victims’ rights and community-based alternatives, rather than punishment-oriented justice policies. What victims want from the criminal justice system is a less formal process, more information about case processing, respectful treatment, and emotional restoration.
In recent years the role of victims in the criminal justice system has risen into prominence, inspiring much research into victim experience and possible reform. There are a multitude of factors that influence policy makers in relation to reforming the criminal justice system, one of which is victims. However, victims while they can be catalysts for reforms such as the case of James Ramage among others, they still play a relatively minor role in influencing policy change.
There are many different types of victims we have discussed over the course of this class, but we’re only going to talk about two types in the following paper. These two types of victims are common just as any another victim across America. These include sex assault victims and child abuse victims, which are both primary victims in cases. The two share a tie together, both are a victim of abuse and can cause lifelong consequences, but they also pose many differences as well. Many questions arise when talking about victims, for example why is a child or adult being abused and what are the life altering affects to these actions. Throughout this paper we discuss both sexual assault victims and child abuse victims and compare and contrast between the two.
Four broad questions raised by general victimology includes; defining the victim of a crime and the type of crime placed against them or application of said definition. Are they a victim of another person or of the environment? For example, was the victim walking down the street and a stranger came up and snatched their purse. This would be the victim of a crime. Whereas, if it rained for three days straight and an individual was killed after being swept away by flood waters they would be a victim of the environment. A victim may also be a victim of oneself through the act of suicide, or of technology if a local coal company pollutes the area water and they die from drinking said polluted water (Doerner & Lab, 2012).
Understanding the theories of victimology is important to understand the victims, we need to understand the four main theories of victimization. These theories are the principals of victim assessment. It will give the officer the tools to understand the motive behind the victimization giving him different types of views to analyze the victim. The four main theories of victimization are: Victim Precipitation, Lifestyle, Deviant Place, and Routine Activity. These four theories according to victimology give us the idea of how the victim become to be a victim. The word Victimization meanings “an act that exploits or victimizes someone” and “adversity resulting from being made a victim” (Vocabulary.com. Dictionary Victimization (2017)). By understanding the victim and the influences of their social life is important so we can give the victim the treatment and
Being a ‘victim’ is not an objective phenomenon. A victim is a historical, social, legal, political and a temporal construct. Regardless of the definition of a victim, responses, while usually is pitiful, sympathetic and concerned, there are instances where victims are actually criticised and incur blame for their experiences with crimes. The concept of the ‘ideal’ victim plays an integral part in the response of the criminal justice system. While Christie’s (1986) seminal ‘ideal victim’ has been prominent in victimology, it is an outdated theory.