Victims of Crime

Question 1

What is the UN definition of victims of crime?

Answer 1

Those who have suffered harm such as mental health, physical or emotional suffering, economic loss and impairment of their basic rights.

Question 2

What does Christie argue about the victims?

Answer 2

That the concept of a victim is socially constructed by the media, the public and CJS. The sterotypical ideal victim is weak, innocent and blameless.

Question 3

What is repat victimisation?

Answer 3

Refers to being a victim of the same crime several times. Generally, this unlikely to happen, apart from crimes such as domestic abuse.

Question 4

What are the effects of victimisation?

Answer 4

1. Physical - such as injury.
2. Emotional - low self-esteem, feelings of helplessness.
3. Social - difficulties in social functioning, e.g. easily getting into family arguements.
4. Financial - the cost of reparing or replacing the damaged and stolen property.

Question 5

How does crime create indirect victims?

Answer 5

Family, firends, witnesses. Therefore, crime creates waves of harm that radiate out to affect others including communities - can feel intimidated.

Question 6

What is secondary victimisation?

Answer 6

The victim can suffer further victimisation at the hands of CJS. For example, feminists argue rape victims are badly treated by CJS.

Question 7

How does crime create fear?

Answer 7

Fear of victimisation.

Question 8

What are the features of postivists victimology according to Miers?

Answer 8

1. It aims to discover the patterns of victimisation.
2. It aims to identify who has contributed to their own victimisation.
3. It focuses on interpersonal crimes of violence - e.g. male violence against women.

Question 9

What is victim proneness? (Positivists victimology)

Answer 9

The likelihood of a person being a victim according to their social characteristics which make them different to non-victims.

Question 10

How can victims contribute to their own victimisation? (Positivists victimology)

Answer 10

Victims invite victimisation by being the kind of person they are, e.g. displaying their wealth.

Question 11

What did Wolfgang find in his study?

Answer 11

Wolfgang’s study of homicides found that 26% involved victim precipation - the victim triggered the events by being the first to use violence.

Question 12

What is the evaluation of positivists victimology?

Answer 12

+ Wolfgang shows the importance of the victim-offender relationship.

• Ignores the wider structural factos influencing victimisation such as poverty and patriarchy.
• Blames the victim, e.g. rape cases - ‘asking for it’
• It doesn’t account for crime where the victim is unaware of their victimisation.

Question 13

What is critical victimiology?

Answer 13

Based on conflict theories such as Marxism and Feminism. They are that there is a hierarchy of victimisation in ehich the powerless are the most likely to be victimised and the least likely to have this acknowleged by the state.

Question 14

Why are structural factors important to critical victimology?

Answer 14

Factors such as poverty and patriarchy which place the powerless groups such as women and the poorest at a greater risk of becoming victims of crime. Walklate argues that victimisation is a form of structural powerlessness.

Question 15

Why is state power important to critical victimology?

Answer 15

They have the power to deny or gant the label of ‘victim’. ‘Victim’ is a social construct created through CJS when the state applies the label of ‘vitcims’ to some, but not others. For example, if the police decided against pressing charges against a man who assaults his wife thus denying her the victim status.

Question 16

Why is vitctimisation and ideological function according to Tombs and Whyte?

Answer 16

By denying the label of ‘vitctim’ to some, the CJS hides the extent of victimisation and its time causes thus hidinf the crimes of the powerful.

Question 17

What is the evaluation of critical victimology?

Answer 17

+ Points out how the victim status is contstructed by power and how this benefits the powerful.
- Dirsreagrds the ways in which victims can precipiate victimisation, e.g. leaving valuables in the car.

Question 18

What is the relationship between class and victimisation?

Answer 18

The poorest groups in society are more likely to be victimised. Crimes rates are often highest in areas of high unemployment and deprivation.

Question 19

What is the relationship between age and victimisation?

Answer 19

Younger people are more at risk of victimisation.Most likely to be murder are infants. Teenagers are more likely than adults to experiences assault, sexual harrassment, theft and abuse. The elderly are at risk of abuse in nursing home, but the media representation of the elderly as the victims is an exaggeration as the risk of being victims of crimes for people agaed 75+ only 0.4%

Question 20

What is the relationship between ethnicity and victimisation?

Answer 20

E/m are at greater risk of becoming vitcitms of crime and in general and of racially motivated crimes in particular. People of mixed ethnic background are the most likely to be a victim of any crime, followed by black, Asian and then white peeps.

Question 21

Why are e/m more likely to be victimised?

Answer 21

E/m tend to be yound, unemployed and male. E/m are more likely to report being under-protected and over-controlled by the police. Racist victimisation occurs when an individual is selected as a target of crime because of their ethnicity.

Question 22

What is the Race Relations Act 1998?

Answer 22

A racist incident is any that is percieved as such by the victim of any other person.

Question 23

What is the relationship between gender and victimisation?

Answer 23

Men are at greater risk of becoming victims of crime than women, especially of violent crimes by strangers. However, women are more likely to be victims of domestic abuse, sexual violence, stalking and harassment. These are mostly commited by people the woman knows.