victimisation

Defining victims

United nations - those who have suffered harm through acts or omissions that violate the laws of the state.

Christie (1986)

Victims are socially constructed e.g stereotype of weak, innocent and shameless individuals who are targets of strangers attacks.

Three sentences -

positivists, critical

Positivist victimology seeks to identify why certain individuals are more likely to be victims of conventional, interpersonal crimes, often focusing on victim characteristics, lifestyle, or behavior that may have contributed to their victimization.

 critical victimology argues that victimhood is a social construct influenced by wider power structures like class, gender, and ethnicity, which put the most powerless groups at greater risk of various harms (including state and corporate crime).

challenges the state's power to define who counts as a "legitimate" victim and shed light on structural inequalities that conceal the true extent of victimization.

Sociologists:

Main ideas - meirs (1989) Hans von hentig (1948) marvin wolfgang

main ideas - it aims to identify factors that produce patterns of victimisation

it focuses on interpersonal crimes of violence

it aims to identify how victims contribute to their own victimisation

examples of postivist victimology- hans von hentig - 13 characteristics of victims wolfgang study of 588 homcides

critical victimology

sociologists - mawby and walklate (1994) tombs and whyte (2007)

Main ideas structural factors - poverty and patriachy

the states power to apply and deny the label of victim

examples of critical victimology

mawby and walklate

who are the victims?

class: the poorest groups are most likely to be victimised, crime rates are typically high in deprived areas (survey by newburn and rock 2006)

age: Younger people are a greater risk. Those under 1, teenagers and the elderly are the most vunerable.

ethnicity: minority ethnic groups are more at risk than white people in general.

gender: males are at greater risk than females of becoming victims of violent attacks by strangers. However women are more likely to be vicitms of domestic violence, stalking, sexual violence and people trafficking.

repeat victimisation: if you been a victim once, you are likely to be a victim again.