topic 9 - control, punishment and victims

What is the United Nations definition of a victim?

• Victims are those who have suffered harm, including:

  • Mental, physical, or emotional suffering

  • Economic loss

  • Impairment of their basic rights

  • Harm must be through acts or omissions that violate the laws of the state

How does the other sociologist define a victim?

• Nils Christie (1986)

  • Victim is socially constructed

  • Media, public, and criminal justice system favour the 'ideal victim':
    Weak, innocent, harmless
    Example: small child or old woman who is the target of a stranger's attack

Why is it important to study victims?

Victims play an essential role in the criminal justice process:
Provide much of the evidence used in detecting offenders
Act as witnesses at trials
Study of victims is sometimes called 'victimology'
Two broad perspectives in victimology:
Positivist victimology
Critical victimology

What is positivist victimology? (Miers, 1989)

Has three features:
Aims to identify factors producing patterns in victimisation, especially for certain individuals/groups
Focuses on interpersonal crimes of violence
Aims to identify victims who have contributed to their own victimisation

What is meant by victim proneness in positivist victimology?

Early studies focused on characteristics making some people more vulnerable than others
Hans Von Hentig (1948) identified 13 characteristics, e.g.:
Likely to be females, elderly, or 'mentally subnormal'
Victimisation may be 'invited' by personality or traits
Lifestyle factors can increase risk, e.g., ostentatious display of wealth

Give an example of positivist victimology research.

Marvin Wolfgang (1958) studied 588 homicides in Philadelphia
Found 26% involved victim precipitation
Victim triggered events leading to homicide
Often when victim male and perpetrator female

What are the evaluations of positivist victimology?

Shows importance of victim-offender relationship (Brookman, 2005)
Identifies patterns of interpersonal victimisation
Ignores wider structural factors, e.g., poverty and patriarchy
Can tip into victim blaming, e.g., Amir (1971) claimed 1 in 5 rapes are victim-precipitated
Ignores crimes where victims unaware or no law is broken (e.g., environmental crimes)

What is critical victimology?

Based on conflict theories, e.g., Marxism and feminism
Shares approach with critical criminology
Focuses on two elements:
Structural factors (patriarchy, poverty) putting powerless groups at greater risk
The state's power to apply or deny the label of 'victim'

How does the state affect victim status according to critical victimology?

'Victim' is socially constructed like 'crime' and 'criminal'
Criminal justice process applies the label to some, withholds from others
Example: police may not press charges for assault on wife, denying victim status

Give an example of critical victimology in workplaces.

Tombs and Whyte (2007) studied 'safety crimes'
Employer violations causing death/injury often explained as 'accident-prone' workers
Denies victims official status and conceals crimes of powerful

Evaluation of critical victimology?

Disregards role victims may play in bringing victimisation on themselves (e.g., not securing home)
Highlights how victim status is socially constructed by power
Shows the powerful benefit at the expense of powerless

What are the patterns of victimisation by class?

Poorest groups more likely to be victims
Crime rates highest in areas with high unemployment and deprivation
Survey of 300 homeless people (Newburn and Rock, 2006):
12 times more likely to experience violence than general population
1 in 10 urinated on while sleeping rough

Why are the poorest social groups most likely to be victims of crime?

More likely to live in high-crime areas
Higher exposure to offenders
Less protection and fewer resources to avoid victimisation

What are the patterns of victimisation by age?

Younger people at more risk:
Infants under 1 at highest risk of being murdered
Teenagers vulnerable to assault, sexual harassment, theft, abuse at home
Elderly at risk of abuse in nursing homes
Risk generally declines with age

What are the patterns of victimisation by ethnicity?

Minority ethnic groups at greater risk than whites
Higher risk of general and racially motivated crimes
Ethnic minorities, young people, and homeless more likely to feel:
Under-protected
Over-controlled by police

What are the patterns of victimisation by gender?

Males: more at risk from violent attacks by strangers
About 70% of homicide victims are male
Females: more at risk from:
Domestic violence
Sexual violence
Stalking and harassment
People trafficking
Mass rape in times of armed conflict

What is repeat victimisation?

Victims of crime are likely to be victimised again
British Crime Survey:
60% of population not victims in a year
4% of population are victims of 44% of all crimes

What are the impacts of victimisation?

Crime may have serious physical and emotional effects, including:
Helplessness
Increased security-consciousness
Disrupted sleep
Difficulties in social functioning
Can create 'indirect victims', e.g., friends, relatives, witnesses
Example: Pynoos et al (1987) found child witnesses of sniper attack had grief-related dreams and altered behaviour a year later

What are 'waves of harm' in hate crimes?

Hate crimes target minorities, creating harm beyond primary victims
Intimidates whole communities
Challenges societal value systems

What is secondary victimisation?

Additional victimisation caused by the criminal justice system
Example: rape victims often treated poorly by police and courts (feminist critique: 'double violation')

What is fear of victimisation?

Crime can create fear of becoming a victim
Surveys show fear often irrational:
Women more afraid of going out, yet young men are main victims of stranger violence
Feminists critique focus on fear:
Emphasises women's passivity and psychological state
Instead, should focus on structural threat of patriarchal violenc