Understanding Victimology

An Active-Learning Approach

Shelly Clevenger, Jordana N. Navarro, Catherine D. Marcum, George E. Higgins

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781498772884
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

Understanding Victimology: An Active-Learning Approach explains what the field of victimology is—including its major theoretical perspectives and research methods—and provides insight into the dynamics of various offline and online crimes from the victims' vantage point. It is the only textbook to provide numerous innovative active learning exercises to enhance and reinforce student learning, and it addresses important contemporary topics that have thus far not been covered by other victimology texts, including identity theft, hate crimes, and terrorism. This unique and relevant work is ideal for students, academics, and practitioners who are interested in a comprehensive introduction to victimology.

Chapter 1

Introduction to Victimology

Keywords

• Assistance-oriented Victimology
• Criminology
• Critical Victimology
• Feminists
• General Victimology
• Interactionist
• Victimology
• Penal Victimology
• Positivist Victimology
• Radical Victimology
• Victim Blaming
• Victim Facilitation
• Victim Precipitation
• Victim Provocation

Introduction

Benjamin Mendelsohn, often referred to as the father of victimology, describes the field as “the science of victims and victimity. By victimity, we mean the general concept, the specific common phenomenon which characterizes all categories of victims, whatever the cause of their situation” (1976, p. 9). In other words, Mendelsohn continues, “it [victimology] must take into account all phenomena which causes victims, to the extent that society takes an interest in them” (1976, p. 9; emphasis added). Taking into account these statements, victimology is the study of victimization that includes the analysis of the victim-offender relationship as well as the victim’s experiences with the criminal justice system during the administration of justice (Mendelsohn, 1976; van Dijk, 1999; Viano, 1983). Ultimately, the field of victimology includes two overarching goals: (1) to prevent victimization from happening in the first place and (2) to minimize the harm post-victimization as well as prevent repeat victimizations (Mendelsohn, 1976).

Media Byte 1.1: Perfect Victims—Revictimizing Survivors of Crime

As the victimology field has developed, there has been greater recognition and understanding of crime victims as unique individuals. Specifically, journalists and scholars alike have continued to challenge the idea of a “perfect victim,” because factors associated with that concept are largely not grounded in reality and are often based on inaccurate beliefs about crime. In this Media Byte, read the following news article:

Katie McDonough. “The ‘Perfect Victim’ Myth: How Attempts to Discredit Rape Survivors Stand in the Way of Real Change.” Salon. February 3, 2015. (www.salon.com/2015/02/03/the_perfect_victim_myth_how_attempts_to_discredit_individual_survivors_stand_in_the_way_of_real_change/)

After reading the above news story, answer the following questions in a brief response:

In thinking about rape and sexual assault, what actions and characteristics immediately come to your mind when you think of “offender” and “victim”?

After writing down how you conceptualize those two terms, check out Project Unbreakable (http://projectunbreakable.tumblr.com/). Note the survivors’ stories and whether they challenge the list created to address question 1.

Describe in a brief reaction paper the consequences associated with upholding the idea of a “perfect victim” on a societal level, in terms of how crime is understood and responded to, and on an individual level for both the offender and the survivor.

The following quote from Frederick Wertham’s (1949) text entitled The Show of Violence underscores the importance of victimology in the overall understanding of crime: “One cannot understand the psychology of the murderer if one does not understand the sociology of the victim. What we need is a science of victimology” (as cited in Fattah, 1989). While this holistic understanding of crime has steadily progressed since the 1970s, most studies prior to the 20th century placed little emphasis on crime victims (Mendelsohn, 1976; Schneider, 2001; van Dijk, 1999; Viano, 1983, 1976). Interestingly, as Fattah (2000) notes, some of the earliest works examining crime victims were outside academia and are found in literature and poetry. To understand the state of victimology then, it is important to revisit this history, including the work of its pioneers, and learn how the field progressed.

Textbook Author Spotlight

Dr. Shelly Clevenger, Illinois State University

Biography: Dr. Clevenger grew up in Pennsylvania. She is an Assistant Professor at Illinois State University. Her research interests include sexual assault, intimate partner abuse, and cybervictimization. She has authored peer-reviewed publications on these topics appearing in such journals as Feminist Criminology, Sexual Abuse, The Security Journal, The Journal of Criminal Justice Education, and The Journal of School Violence. Clevenger also served as an editor, as well as contributor, for the edited volume The Virtual Enemy: The Intersection Between Intimate Partner Abuse, Technology, and Cybercrime. She has been recognized for her teaching in these areas by Illinois State University and the American Society of Criminology Division of Victimology with Outstanding Teaching Awards.

Favorite Part of Teaching: Interacting with students in the classroom and outside the classroom through civic engagement projects

Research Interests and Areas: sex offenses, victimology, animal cruelty

Education:

Ph.D. Criminology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

M.A. Criminology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

B.A. Criminology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

The History and Early Pioneers of Victimology

An overview of early criminological works, particularly before the 20th century, shows a notable dearth of information on victims of crime (Fattah, 2000; Viano, 1976). This is not to state that there was a complete absence of discussion about crime victims (Viano, 1983), but rather that scholarly activity focused on perpetrators of crime. A review of early criminological works reveals some discussion of crime victims as seen through the writings of Beccaria (1764) and Lombroso (1876) (as cited in Dussich, 2006; Schafer, 1977), but, again, many criminology studies during this time focused on understanding the origins of crime through examining only the actions of the offender (Schneider, 2001). However, interest in the suffering of victims accelerated in the aftermath of World War II, and victimology began emerging from the broader field of criminology (Fattah, 2000).

Activity 1.1: Criminology and Victimology—Related but Different

Students should spend a few moments reviewing an area of criminal research that is of interest to them. After researching their selected area, students should construct three research questions related to that field from a criminological perspective. After sharing a few examples and parsing out the elements of the questions that center the lines of inquiry within criminology, students should then rework their same research questions from a victimological perspective. After sharing a few examples, spend time parsing out the elements of the questions that center the lines of inquiry within victimology as opposed to criminology.

Table 1.1 Mendelsohn’s (1956) Victim Culpability Spectrum With Examples

Level of Victim Culpability	Examples
Completely Innocent	An individual killed while sleeping at home
Victim With Minor Guilt	An individual robbed after displaying money
Victim as Guilty as Offender	An individual killed during a drug transaction
Victim More Guilty than Offender	An individual killed after initiating a physical altercation
Most Guilty Victim	An individual killed while committing a robbery
Imaginary Victim	An individual who pretends that he/she was victimized

(as cited in Schafer, 1977)

Several early pioneers in victimology made lasting impacts on the field, and, interestingly, many began their careers in the legal profession. For example, Benjamin Mendelsohn (1900–1998) was an Israeli criminal law scholar (van Dijk, 1999) who coined the term victimology in a paper presentation in Bucharest, Romania, in 1947 and used it in a paper entitled “A New Branch of Bio-Psycho-Social Science: Victimology” in 1946 (Mendelsohn, 1963; The Victimologist, 1998). As a criminal defense lawyer, Mendelsohn, like many victimologists of the day, was interested in understanding how victims’ actions contributed to criminal activity (van Dijk, 1999; Viano, 1976). Although there is some disagreement about whether he was the first to use the term or whether it was an American psychiatrist named Frederick Wertham in 1949 (Fattah, 2000), Mendelsohn continued to shape the field with his writings until his death in January 1998 (The Victimologist, 1998). Indeed, one of his lasting contributions to the field was the creation of a typology (see Table 1.1) delineating the responsibility of the victim versus the offender in criminal events, which ranged from completely innocent to completely guilty.

Although Mendelsohn was a pivotal member of the victimology field, the contributions made by Hans von Hentig, whom Mendelsohn himself cites (1963), were equally as important. Unlike many victimologists, Hans von Hentig (1887–1974) began his career as an academic and scholar with a keen focus on the role of victims in criminal activity (Viano, 1976). In his pursuit to understand the etiology of victimization, von Hentig was especially concerned about the interaction between victims and offenders and the exchanges that led to criminal events (Mendelsohn, 1963). Von Hentig’s interest resulted in one of the most influential works in the field, The Criminal and His Victim (1948), in which he identified several victim risk factors that were important for understanding the genesis of crime (see Table 1.2). His seminal work, along with similar works of other victimologists of the period (e.g., Fattah, Mendelsohn), also contributed to later debates surrounding whether victims were responsible, in whole or in part, for ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• 1 Introduction to Victimology
• 2 Theories of Victimization
• 3 Victims’ Rights and Remedies
• 4 Hybrid and Online Victimization
• 5 Personal and Property Victimization
• 6 Rape, Sexual Assault, and Kidnapping
• 7 Intimate Partner Violence
• 8 School and Work Victimization
• 9 Victimization of Special Populations
• 10 Hate Crimes and Terrorism
• Index