VICTIMOLOGY

1. measures crime by studying victimization,

2. patterns of victim-offender relationships and

3. the role of the victim within the criminal and

juvenile justice systems.
 studies data that describes phenomena and
causal relationships related to victimizations.

This includes events leading to the

victimization, the victim’s experience, its
VICTIMOLOGY aftermath and the actions taken by society in
response to these victimizations.

Therefore, victimology includes the study of

the precursors, vulnerabilities, events, impacts,
recoveries, and responses by people,
organizations and cultures related to
victimizations.
• It is a key element of restorative justice—
the idea that healing, rather than
punishment, is the better approach to
addressing crime.
The study of victimology also seeks
to understand:
1. Why criminals target specific victims.
2. Acknowledging the systemic injustices that may lead
former victims to become perpetrators themselves.
3. It also helps reduce the likelihood that
perpetrators will commit additional offenses,
because it can help them reframe how they think
about the individuals they might otherwise victimize
 HISTORY OF
VICTIMOLOGY
PIONEERS
Hans von Hentig
• In his book The Criminal and His Victim: Studies in the
Sociobiology of Crime, Hans von Hentig (1948)
recognized the importance of investigating what factors
underpin why certain people are victims, just as
criminology attempts to identify those factors that
produce criminality
• He determined that some of the same characteristics that
produce crime also produce victimization.
Benjamin Mendelsohn

• Known as the “Father of Victimology”.

• coined the term for this area of study in the mid-
1940s.
• He then created a classification of victims based on
their culpability, or the degree of the victim's blame.
His classification entailed the following:
His classification entailed the following:
• 1. Completely innocent victim: a victim who bears no
responsibility at all for victimization; victimized simply because
of his or her nature, such as being a child.
• 2. Victim with minor guilt: a victim who is victimized due to
ignorance; a victim who inadvertently places himself or herself
in harm's way
• 3. Victim as guilty as offender/voluntary victim: a victim
who bears as much responsibility as the offender; a person
who, for example, enters into a suicide pact
• 4. Victim more guilty than offender: a victim who instigates
or provokes his or her own victimization
• 5. Most guilty victim: a victim who is victimized during the
perpetration of a crime or as a result of crime

• 6. Simulating or imaginary victim: a victim who is not

victimized at all but, instead, fabricates a victimization event
Mendelsohn's classification emphasized degrees of
culpability, recognizing that some victims bear no responsibility
for their victimization, whereas others, based on their behaviors
or actions, do
Stephen Schafer
➢wrote The Victim and His Criminal: A Study in Functional
Responsibility

➢Schafer also proposed a victim typology

• He argued that people have a functional responsibility not
to provoke others into victimizing or harming them and
that they also should actively attempt to prevent that from
occurring. He identified seven categories and labeled their
levels of responsibility as follows:

1. Unrelated victims—no responsibility

2. Provocative victims—share responsibility
3. Precipitative victims—some degree of responsibility
• 4. Biologically weak victims—no responsibility
• 5. Socially weak victims-no responsibility
• 6. Self-victimizing—total responsibility
• 7. Political victims-no responsibility
 Marvin Wolfgang
• The first person to empirically
investigate victim precipitation was
Marvin Wolfgang (1957) in his classic
study of homicides occurring in
Philadelphia from 1948 to 1952.

For example, the victim in such an incident

would be the first to brandish or use a
weapon, the first to strike a blow, and the
first to initiate physical violence. He found
that 26% of all homicides in Philadelphia
during this period were victim
precipitated.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
OF VICTIMOLOGY
• The concept of victim dates back to ancient
cultures and civilization such as the ancient
Hebrews.
• The original meaning of victimology was
rooted in the idea of sacrifice or
scapegoat.

• SACRIFICE/SCAPEGOAT is the execution

or casting out a person or an animal to
satisfy a deity or hierarchy.
• According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),
between the 1970's and 1980's, just after the civil rights
movement, there was increased awareness about
victims.

• In 1972, the FBI formed the Behavioral Science

Unit (BSU) to and group study the relationships between
the offenders, the victims, dynamics in society.
Victimology is a combination term two
term elements:
• Latin word “Victima” which translates into “victim”.

• Greek word “logos” which means a system of

knowledge, the direction of something abstract, the
direction of teaching, science, and a discipline.
What is Victimology?
• Victimology is the study of the relationship between the
victim and the perpetrator.

• Likewise it is the "Scientific study of physical, emotional, and

financial harm people suffer because of illegal activities.
DEFINITION TERMS
• “Crime victim” is a person who has been physically,
financially or emotionally injured and/or had their property
taken or damaged by someone committing a crime.

• “Victimogenesis” refers to the origin or cause of a

victimization; the constellation of variables which caused a
victimization to occur.

• “Victim Precipitation” a victimization where the victim

causes, in part or totally, their own victimization.
“Victimization”

• refers to an event where persons, communities and institutions

are damaged or injured in a significant way.

• Those persons who are impacted by persons or events suffer a

violation of rights or significant disruption of their well being.
 “Vulnerability” is a physical, psychological, social,
material or financial condition whereby a person or an
object has a weakness which could render them a victim
if another person or persons would recognize these
weaknesses and take advantage of them.

 “General Victim” is a person who has been

physically, financially or emotionally injured and/or had
their property taken or damaged by someone, an event,
an organization or a natural phenomenon.
Restorative Justice

 It is a systematic formal legal response to

crime victimization that emphasizes healing the
injuries
 This process is a departure from the
traditional retributive form of dealing with
criminals and victims
“Victim Trauma”
 It includes emotional and physical experiences that
produce pain and injuries.
 It results from the pairing of a painful or frightening
emotional experience with a specific memory which
emerge and have a long lasting effect on the life of a
person.
 The more direct the exposure to the traumatic event,
the higher the risk for emotional harm and prolonged
effects.
 THEORIES OF
VICTIMIZATION
Victim precipitation theory
The lifestyle theory
Deviant place theory, and
The routine activities theory
VICTIM PRECIPITATION
 Concept : “victim blaming”
 Wolfgang first introduced this concept in 1967.
 explains how an individual’s behavior may
contribute to his or her own victimization.
 This approach considers offenders and victims as
mutually interacting partners.
Two types of victim precipitation

 1. Active precipitation exists when the victim

knowingly acts in a provocative manner, uses
fighting words or threats, or simply attacks
first.(e.g. fighting words or threats, attacking first)

 2.Passive precipitation occurs when the victim

contains characteristics that unknowingly
motivates or threatens the attacker. (e.g.
competing for love interest, promotion, jealousy)
2. THE LIFESTYLE
THEORY
• This theory purports that
individuals are targeted
based on their lifestyle
choices, and that these
lifestyle choices expose
them to criminal offenders
and situations in which
crimes may be committed.
• This theory believed that an
individual will suffer a personal
victimization and depends
heavily upon the concept of life
style.
• Most victims are victimized at
night.
• Lifestyle theory in criminal justice
focuses on crime victims rather
than the perpetrators.
LIFESTYLE THEORY
• Those who choose high-risk lifestyles has a greater chance to
become a victim, this includes:

• 1. taking drugs,
• 2. drinking alcohol,
• 3. participating in criminal activities
• 4. the more time someone is exposed to street life.
• Features. According to lifestyle theory, people become
victims of crime because they do not exercise intelligent or
rational choice when putting themselves in social situations.

• Benefits. Lifestyle theory holds that if a person changes his

life choices, he will become less likely to be victimized.

• Effects. Crime is then based on victims who deliberately put

themselves in harm's way by identifying with those people or
situations prone to crime.

• Considerations. While lifestyle theory deals with victims,

"routine activities" theory deals with criminals.
 Four of the most well-
known theories related to
Deviance and Criminology
A. Differential-association theory

• differential association to address the issue of how people

learn deviance.
• According to this theory, the environment plays a major role in
deciding which norms people learn to violate. Specifically,
people within a particular reference group provide norms of
conformity and deviance, and thus heavily influence the way
other people look at the world, including how they react.
B. Anomie theory

• Anomie refers to the confusion that arises when

social norms conflict or do not even exist.

• In the 1960s, Robert Merton used the term to

describe the differences between socially
accepted goals and the availability of means to
achieve those goals.
C. Control theory

According to Walter Reckless's control theory, both

inner and outer controls work against deviant
tendencies. People may want—at least some of the
time—to act in deviant ways, but most do not.
D. Labeling theory

• Posits that self-identity and the behavior of

individuals may be determined or influenced by
the terms used to describe or classify them