What Is Victim Vicmization?

Although no one should be victimized, there are some victims who do not work to prevent it, and often contribute to the crime. There are three situations where victims may contribute to the crime; victim facilitation, victim precipitation, and victim provocation.

Victim Facilitation is carelessness or neglect, often unknowingly on the victim’s part. This is a contributing factor to the offender’s opportunity to commit crime against the victim (Karmen, 2016). For example, an individual on a shopping spree has multiple shopping bags in the backseat of their vehicle. In a rush to get to a “doorbuster” sale, the individual parks and quickly rushes to the store, forgetting to lock their vehicle and hide their shopping bags. The vehicle is

An example of victim precipitation is a female that arrives at a nightclub and is sexually suggestive with a male individual. The female entices the male to buy her drinks while flirting with the man. The female allows slight grooming but the male then becomes more aggressive. The female declines these advances, stunning the male. The male places a date rape drug into her drink and renders her immobilized. The male then proceeds to rape the female. This kind of victimization is comparable to victim facilitation, as the initial situation is created by the victim (likening the shopping bags in the vehicle to the female encouraging the man’s advances). This situation is unlike victim provocation because she cannot be blamed for the man believing she wanted more than a drink based on her flirty nature. In this situation, if the victim had only sat at the bar and left her drink unattended and available for the man to tamper with, this would be considered victim facilitation as she was unaware of her actions which created an opportunity for crime. Had the woman in the bar agreed to go home with the man she met there, it would be victim provocation, as she created and placed herself in the dangerous