18 - Victim Theories

Question 1

Interactionist Views - Proponents also known as penal or positivist victimologists

Answer 1

Developed from work of Von Hentig (1941), Wolfgang (1958) and Mendelsohn (1956).

Focuses upon the interactions between the victim and offender and the levels of culpability that might be attached to the relationship between the two as well as the strong relationship between victimisation and social setting

Classification based on legal considerations of the degree of the victim’s blame:

Completely innocent (being in the wrong place at the wrong time)

Victims with minor guilt/due to ignorance

Victim as guilty as offender/voluntary victim

Empirically investigated victim precipitation by investigating homicides in ‘Philly’ USA from 1948-1952
Found Common factors:

Often victim and offender know each other

Alcohol plays role

Incident often escalates from minor altercation to murder

60% of cases where women killed their husbands as victim precipitated

9% of incidents where men killed their wives as victim precipitated

Question 2

Victim Precipitation…

Answer 2

Von Hentig (1941)—Stated that by acting in certain provocative ways, some individuals initiate a chain of events that lead to their victimization

A situation in which the victim initiated the actions that ultimately led to their harm or loss (Petherick and Sinnamon 2014)

Viewed as traditionally those cases where victims initially used a deadly weapon or struck a blow.
(Brown, Esbensen and Geis 2010)

Victim precipitation theory has been most contentious when it is applied to rape.

Problems

Assumption that the behaviour of the victim can explain the criminal act

The responsibility is placed on the Victim

It creates a Culturally Legitimate Victim

It excuses the offenders behaviour

Victimologists do not blame, they simply remind us that complete innocence and full responsibility lie on a continuum

Question 3

Radical Victimology…

Answer 3

Identity, discrimination and the experience of Socially Marginalised Groups

Perpetrators use victim blaming to keep the offence hidden- eg……….
It’s because I love you
It’s for your own good
You need to be taught a lesson
It’s because you’re bad/you deserve it

Mechanisms of “support” can then reinforce victim responsibility

You need to be stronger
What were you doing there anyway?
You leave yourself open to that type of treatment.
How did it start?
What provoked him/her to behave like that?

Question 4

Routine Activity Theory ‘RAT’

One of the main theories of “environmental criminology” Cohen and Felson (1979).
“Opportunity makes the thief”

Answer 4

The theory states that a crime occurs when the following three elements come together in any given space and time:

An accessible target

The absence of capable guardians that could intervene

The presence of a motivated offender

“Situational Crime Prevention”

Question 5

Lifestyle Theory

Answer 5

The basic idea of lifestyle theory is that there are certain lifestyles that disproportionately expose some people to high risk for victimization. Victimization is the function of the victim’s lifestyle

Lifestyles are the routine patterned activities that people engage in on a daily basis, both obligatory and optional. Eg.-Going out in public places late at night, living in urban areas

High-risk lifestyles: drinking, taking drugs, getting involved in crimes, leaving household for a long time, etc.

General findings: homes that are well-guarded are less likely to be burglarized, people who stay out late and drink heavily are more likely to be crime victims.

Most of the research in routine activities/lifestyle theory has been done on rape victimization.

Question 6

Policy Implications…

Answer 6

Situational Crime Prevention: stops crime by preventing the intersection in time and space of offenders and targets that lack guardianship

Make target less attractive and offenders will choose not to commit crime

Note however the effect of Displacement