VICTIMOLOGY

Rationale

In this study, we will introduced to the historical background and development of victim and
victimology, theories of victimology hence, the causes and effects of victimization. The study on
victimology and victimization is indeed of a great help, considering crime is inevitable in our
society and part of it are the victims who suffers from the destructive or injurious action made by
an offender/ perpetrator.

RELATED LITERATURE
 Victimization is more likely being committed at night (6:00 pm - 6:00 am)
 African –Americans are victimized at the highest rats. Crime tends to be intra-racial
(criminals and victims are of the race

WHAT IS VICTIMOLOGY?

Victimology may be defined as the branch of the study of criminology which deals with
the study of an individual who somehow, one way or another, has contributed to the
commissioned of a crime and at the same time a crime victim of his own volition.

It is simply the study of victims of crimes and contributory role, if any in crime causation.

It is also the scientific process of gaining substantial amounts of knowledge on offender

characteristics by studying the nature of victims.

WHO ARE THE FATHERS OF VICTIMOLOGY?

1. Hans Von Hentig- is a German criminologist who began to change the societal attitudes
towards crime following his study of several homicide victims.  Hentig is credited as being a
founder of the theory of Victimology and was the first to suggest that the victim himself is
“one of the many causes of crime”.

Hentig’s theory altered societal attitudes and influenced change by altering the focus of a
homicide investigation from the criminal to the victim.

Hentig’s approach was considered brilliant in the late 1940s.  It was a new concept that
quickly evolved and expanded into a theory.  The victims were categorized and labeled while the
investigators searched for what we now call

an “unknown suspect.”

2. Benjamin Mendelsohn– is generally credited as the initiator of the word VICTIMOLOGY.

In 1963, Criminologist Benjamin Mendelsohn, refined Hentig’s theory by expanding on

it.  Mendelsohn developed a similar idea which he called “victim precipitation.” 
 Victim precipitation is a term which suggests that the victim of a crime had “an
aptitude, although unconsciously, of being victimized”. Mendelsohn concluded that victims
“look, think, and act differently” than non-victims which increase their likelihood of becoming
victims.  There are as many types of victims as there are types of criminals. He also initiated the
word Penal Couple.

PENAL COUPLE is a term that describes the relationship between the victim and the
criminal. Further, he also coined the term VICTIMAL to described the victim counterpart of the
criminal, and the word VICTIMITY, which signifies the opposite of criminality.

Robert Reiff once said the problems of crime always get reduced to what can be done
alone about criminals; nobody ask what can be done about victims?

In an attempt to prevent victimization, individuals may move, restrict their daily

activities, or purchase expensive security measures.

The government, in apprehending and punishing offenders, is extending billions of

money and man – hours, yet we have only started recently to focus our attention on the victims
of crime.

WHO ARE CRIME VICTIMS?

1. Key factors in the Criminal Justice Process

2. Forgotten person in the CJS
3. Criminal are the superstars
4. Valued for their capacity to report crimes and to appear in court as witness

WHAT ARE THE FACTORS OF VICTIMIZATION?

1. Our materialistic culture

2. Our sex values
3. Decay of discipline
4. Public morality
5. hedonism

WHAT ARE THE GENERAL CLASSES OF VICTIMS?

1. Young – weak by virtue of age and maturity.

2. Female – often less physically powerful than the male.

3. Old – incapable of physical defense and object of the confidence scheme.

4. Immigrants – unsure of the rules of conduct in the surrounding society.

5. Minorities – racial prejudice may lead to victimization or unequal treatment by the agency of
justice.

WHAT ARE THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES OF VICTIMS BASED ON HENTIG’S

STUDIES?

1. Depressed – submissive by virtue of emotional condition. They are the easiest target because
they were careless and unsuspecting.

2. Acquisitive or greedy type – always wanting more propels such individual into
victimization. They were easily deceived because of their “insatiability.” 

3. Lonesome – similar to the acquisitive type, by virtue of wanting companionship or affection.

4. Heartbroken–like the lonesome, if temporary.

5. Wanton or overly sensual – those ruled by passion and thoughtlessly seeking pleasure.
They are vulnerable because of their “neediness”.

6. Tormentor – the type of victim who ask for it, often from his own family or friends.The
tormentor, it seems, was attacked following the tormenting of another.  The tormentor
became the victim after the victim retaliated on the perpetrator.  This might be analogous to
the battered-wife who subsequently kills her abuser.

WHAT ARE OTHER TYPES OF VICTIMS BY BENJAMIN MENDELSOHN?

1. Completely innocent victims – such person is an ideal victim in popular perception. In this
category placed persons victimized while they were unconscious, and the child victims.

2. Victims with only minor guilt and those victimized due to ignorance

3. The victim who is just as guilty as the offender and the voluntary victim -Suicide cases
are common to this category.

4. The victim guiltier than the offender – this category was described as containing persons
who provoked the criminal or actively induced their own victimization.

5. The most guilty victim who is guilty alone – an attacker killed by a would – be victim in
the act of defending themselves were places into this category.

6. The imaginary victim – those suffering from mental disorders, or those victims due to
extreme mental abnormalities.

WHAT ARE THE PROCEDURAL MODELS OF VICTIMIZATION?

1. Victims of Crime Model

 a. Stage of impact and disorganization – during and immediately following the criminal
event.

b. Stage of recoil – during which the victim formulates psychological defenses and deals
with conflicting emotions of guilt, anger, acceptance, and desire of revenge. (said to last 3
– 8 months)

c. Reorganization stage – during which the victim puts his or her life back to normal
living. Some victims may not successfully adopt the victimization experience and a
maladaptive reorganization stage may last for many years.

2. Disaster Victim’s Model – this model was developed to explain the coping behavior of
victims of natural disasters.

a. Pre – impact stage – describe the state of the victim prior to being victimized.

b. Impact – or the stage at which victimization occurs.

c. Post – impact stage – which entails the degree and duration of personal and social
disorganization following victimization.

d. Behavioral outcome – This describes the victim’s adjustment to the victimization

process.

VICTIMOLOGY AND DAMAGES

“If there is a complainant, there must be a defendant”. Thus, there could never be a
victim if there is no offender, except in what is known as victimless crimes.

The only thing that does away with criminality is decriminalization. This is otherwise
known as LOGOMACY. It is a statement that we have no crime if we had no criminal law and
that we could eliminate all crime by abolishing all criminal laws.

Man has a juridical capacity to act. He is normally entitled to the following civil
damages:

1. Moral damages – the compensation awarded to a person’s physical suffering, mental

anguish, fright, serious anxiety, besmirched reputation, wounded feeling, moral shock, social
humiliation, and similar injury.

2. Actual or compensatory damages – the compensation awarded to a person for such

pecuniary loss suffered by him as he has duly proved.

3. Nominal damages – amount awarded to a victim in order that his right that had been
violated or invaded may be restored or recognized.
4. Temperate damages – moderate damages, the compensation that is more than nominal but
less than compensatory damages given to a person when the court finds that he suffered some
pecuniary loss, but its amount cannot, from the nature of the case be proved with certainty.

5. Liquidated damages – damages that agreed upon by the parties to a contract to be paid in
cases of BREACH of CONTRACT.

6. Exemplary damages – corrective damages; those that imposed by way of example or

correction for the public good, in addition to the moral template, liquidated or compensatory
damages.

WHAT ARE VICTIMLESS CRIMES?

Out of the 365 articles of the RPC of the Philippines, gambling of any kind and Art. 202
on vagrancy which are acts punishable are considered as the only victimless crimes.These crimes
are also called moral offenses or vices. (public order crimes)

It refers to acts committed by consenting adults in private. In victimless crimes, the acts
involve only the participants and do not directly harm others.Ex. Drug addiction, prostitution and
gambling