Victimology Exam 1

What is the difference between victimology and criminology?

Victimology is the scientific study of victims, their experiences, and the impact of crime on their lives. Criminology is the scientific study of crime and criminal behavior.

Criminology came first and focuses on the offender. Victimology was influenced by criminology and focuses on the victim.

What other academic fields may include crime victim issues?

• Sociology

• Psychology

• Law

• Social Work

• Nursing and Medicine

What types of research do victimologists currently focus on?

Costs of victimization, victimization patterns, reoccuring victimization, and prevention measures

What is general victimology?

General victimology examines all forms of victimization and the relationship between victims, offenders, and society.

What categories of victims are included in Mendelsohn’s typology of what constitutes general victimology?

Victims of crime, disasters, accidents, environmental harm, and social/political victimization.

What is critical victimology? What topics would a critical victimologist be more inclined to study?

Critical victimology examines the wider social context in which some versions of victimology have become more dominant than others and how those versions are interwoven with policy response and service delivery.

More inclined to study genocide, bribery of government officials, deportation, and human slave trade.

What is the difference between primary/direct and secondary/indirect victims?

A primary/direct victim is the person who the crime was directly committed against. Experienced the property loss, injury, or trauma first hand.

A secondary/indirect victim is someone who wasn’t committed against, but is affected through a close relationship with a primary victim or witnessing.

**Describe the field of victim assistance. What do victim advocates do? In the criminal justice system? In human services? In the health care system?

Victim assistance is the fully fledged advocacy and service field dedicated to meeting the physical, financial, and psychological needs of victims and their families.

Victim advocates offer victims information, support, and help finding resources and assisting victims with paperwork.

• Criminal Justice: Help connect with legal resources, explain victims’ rights, assist with applications for compensation

• Human Services: Help connect with emergency services (housing), provide crisis intervention, and help with recovery

• Health Care: Advocate for victims when communicating with other service providers

**Describe the concept of offenders as victims. How should victimologists approach research on people engaged in illegal activities when they are also on the receiving end of criminal acts?

The concept of offenders as victims recognizes that a person can engage in illegal activity while also experiencing victimization themselves. In other words, being an offender does not mean someone is incapable of being a victim. Their involvement in illegal behavior can sometimes increase their exposure to situations where victimization is more likely.

Researchers should distinguish between a person's role as an offender and their role as a victim. This requires an objective, nonjudgmental approach.

In early history, what role did retribution/retaliation and restitution have on victims receiving justice?

• Retribution: offender suffers proportionate to degree of harm caused

• Restitution: offender makes sufficient payment to render the victim whole again

Put the responsibility of receiving justice on the victim. Governments and legal systems lacked responsibility or enforcement of getting justice for the victim.

What was the focus of victimological research in the 1940s and 1950s? What was the focus of victimological research in the 1970s and after? What was the reason for this shift?

• 1940s-50s: focused on the victim’s actions and how their conduct “caused” the victimization. Explored shared responsibility

• 1970s-after: focused on prevention, law enforcement and court response, recovery, and victim’s rights

Shifted because of increased social consciousness and changing ideas of victims in society=> Civil Rights Movement, Women’s Rights Movement.

What is victim precipitation, victim facilitation, and victim provocation? Why can these concepts be problematic when considering victimization?

• Precipitation: The extent to which the victim contributed to the criminal event that harmed them

  • Facilitation: Victim unknowingly makes it easier for offender to target them or set in motion the events that lead to victimization

  • Provocation: Occurs when the victim overtly acts to incite another person to commit an illegal act resulting in their victimization

Problematic because it asserts that victims did something wrong to cause their victimization. Shifts some of the responsibility off of the offender and onto the victim.

What is shared responsibility in relation to criminal victimization?

Shared responsibility asserts that certain victims as well as criminals did something wrong.

Describe the early theories of victimology: Han von Hentig

• Criminal-victim dyad: examining the outcome of a criminal event can provide a distorted image of who the real victim is

• Victim as the agent provocateur: crime-provocative function of the victim

• Believed certain physical, psychological, and social disadvantages increase propensity for victimization

  • E.g. young, female, old, immigrants, depressed

Describe the early theories of victimology: Benjamin Mendelsohn

• Father of victimology=> general victimology

• Classified victims based on legal considerations of the victim’s blame/guilt

Completely innocent, minor guilt, as guilty, more guilty, most guilty, imaginary

Describe the early theories of victimology: Stephan Shafer

• Coined functional responsibility: role victims play in not provoking others into victimization

Unrelated (no responsibility), provocative (more responsibility), socially weak (no responsibility), etc.

How did the social movements and the rising social consciousness during the 1950s-1970s influence the recognition of the needs of crime victims?

Social movements like the Civil Rights Movement, Women’s Movement, and Children’s Movement demanded society to recognize the experiences of victims previously overlooked. For example, the Women’s Rights Movement also advocated for protections for women facing domestic violence.

What is victim compensation and when was it first implemented in the United States?

Victim compensation is the idea that a victim should not have to experience financial loss due to a crime. First implemented in the U.S. in 1965 (California).

How did Roberta Roper’s and other victims’ experiences with the criminal justice system affect the field of victim assistance?

At the time of the murder of Roberta Roper’s daughter, there were virtually no rights or services for crime victims. Roper experienced a lack of communication from the prosecution, often showing up to proceedings that ended up being postponed without notifying her. Roper and her husband were also banned from the courtroom after being subpoenaed as witnesses. She was also denied her request to give a Victim Impact Statement.

Because of the experiences of Roper and other victims, victim advocacy as a movement grew. In specific, Roper achieved a Maryland Constitution Amendment for Crime Victims’ Rights. Other states have adopted crime victims’ rights statures.

What are the Victims of Crime Act and the Crime Victims Fund?

The Victims of Crime Act (1984) provides federal support through the Crime Victims Fund to state and local programs that assist victims of crime.

The Crime Victims Fund is funded by federal criminal fines and goes to local and state compensation/assistance programs.

What is the purpose of the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) Program? What type of data does it collect?

The purpose of the UCR was to create a reliable nationwide system of crime statistics. Collects data on type of offense, arrests, and circumstances of offense.

Discuss the change from the Summary Reporting System (SRS) to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).

The change from the SRS to the NIBRS took several years to take effect across agencies. The NIBRS became the standard format in 2021.

What are the main differences between SRS and NIBRS?

Summary Reporting System: Reports on 2 categories of crimes (part 1 and 2), includes murder, little to no victim data collected, uses the hierarchy rule

National Incident Based Reporting System: Reports on 22 categories of crimes, does not include murder, large amount of victim data collected, does not use the hierarchy rule

What were the limitations of the SRS and how does the NIBRS address those limitations?

The limitations of the SRS was the large amount of underreporting due to the hierarchy rule, combination of attempted and committed crimes, and lack of information collected on the victim.

The NIBRS addressed those limitations by abandoning the hierarchy rule, separating attempted and completed crimes, and collecting extensive victim info.

What is the hierarchy rule?

The hierarchy rule only records the most serious offense in cases where multiple offenses occurred.

What is the overall crime index? Which eight crimes are labeled as index crimes?

The overall crime index is computed using the 8 index crimes: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson.

What is the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)? What type of data does it collect?

The NCVS is a self-report survey of a nationwide sample of households focusing on crimes of violence and simple assault. Collected demographics and perceptions of victims and used to derive estimates of crime.

What are the limitations of the NCVS?

• National sample may not be representative

• Memory decay, forward telescoping, and respondent fatigue can cause lack of credibility in info

• Expensive due to large samples needed

• Projects incidents at the midpoint

Compare and contrast the UCR/NIBRS and NCVS.

• UCR/NIBRS: Only measures reported crime, data is incident-level, includes all ages and individuals, and doesn’t measure public perception

• NCVS: Measures crime both reported and not, data is household-level, only includes 12+, excludes the homeless and in jail, excludes drug offenses and prostitution, measures public perception

What is repeat victimization? Describe how the boost and flag explanation impact repeat victimization.

Repeat victimization is the repeated occurrence of a crime on the same victim or location.

• Boost explanation: The first victimization boosts the likelihood of another victimization because the offender learns sensitive information

• Flag explanation: Certain characteristics of a victim or location flag them as an attractive target

Describe Lifestyle-Exposure Theory. What is the main argument of the theory? What components are involved in the theory?

The risk of experiencing crime varies across society given the differences in how individuals are structurally situated. Certain segments of the population are more vulnerable (age, class, gender).

Person is exposed to crime by their lifestyle.

Describe Routine Activity Theory. What is the main argument of the theory? What components are involved in the theory?

Crime results from a convergence of the 3 elements: likely offender, suitable target, absence of a capable guardian.

The situation/activity creates the crime opportunity.

Describe The Social Learning Theory. What is the main argument of the theory? What components are involved in the theory?

Describe Extended Low Self-Control Theory. What is the main argument of the theory? What components are involved in the theory?

Connects with General Theory of Crime which states low self control leads people to offend.

Low self control through risk seeking, future orientation, and diligence leads people to end up in situations where they are victimized.