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Victimology is the study of victimization, including the relationships between victims and offenders, the interactions between victims and the criminal justice system -- that is, the police and courts, and corrections officials -- and the connections between victims and other societal groups and institutions, such as the media, businesses, and social movements. Andrew Karman, 2003, Crime Victims: An Introduction to Victimology, Wadsworth Publishing ,ISBN 9780534616328.
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A victim of a crime, or crime victim, is in criminology and criminal law, the identifiable person who has been harmed individually and directly by the perpetrator or defendant, rather than merely society as a whole. Not all criminologists even accept the concept of victimization or victimology.[citation needed] It also remains a controversial topic within women\'s studies.[citation needed]
Emotional distress as the result of crime is a recurring theme for all victims of crime. The most common problem, affecting three quarters of victims, were psychological problems, including: fear, anxiety, nervousness, self-blame, anger, shame, and difficulty sleeping.Sebba, L., (1996). Third Parties, Victims and the Criminal Justice System. Ohio State University Press, Columbus. These problems often result in the development of chronic PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Post crime distress is also linked to pre-existing emotional problems and sociodemographic variables. This has known to become a leading case of the elderly to be more adversely affected.[citation needed]
Victims suffer from the following:
The experience of victimization results in an increasing fear of the victim of the crime, and the spread of fear in the community.
One of the most controversial sub-topics within the broader topic is victimization Or victim-proneness. For an overview of victimization, see Lucia Zedner\'s article at [1] The concept of "victim-proneness" is a "highly moralistic way of assigning guilt" to the victim of a crime, also known as victim-blaming. Id., see [2] One theory, the environmental theory, posits that the location and context of the crime gets the victim of the crime and the perpetrator of that crime together. Harrison on the environmental theory, at Theory That may just be an academic way of stating that the victim was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
There have been some studies recently to quantify the real existence of victim-proneness. David Thissen (The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas) and Howard Wainer (Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey), Toward the Measurement and Prediction of Victim Proneness, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Vol. 20, No. 2, 243-261 (1983), abstract retrieved at [3] Contrary to the urban legend that more women are repeat victims, and thus more victim-prone than men, actually men in their prime (24 to 34 year old males) are more likely to be victims of repeated crimes. Johannes Kingma, Repeat Victimization of Victims of Violence: A Retrospective Study From a Hospital Emergency Department for the Period 1971-1995 Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Vol. 14, No. 1, 79-90 (1999), abstract retrieved at [4] While each study used different methodology, their results must be taken seriously and further studies are warranted. See, e.g., [5]
The study of victimology may also include the "culture of victimhood," wherein the victim of a crime revels in his status, proclaiming that self-created victimhood throughout a community by winning the sympathy of professionals and peers. See [6], [7], [8].
In the case of juvenile offenders, the study results also show that people are more likely to be victimized as a result of a serious offense by someone they know; the most frequent crimes committed by adolescents towards someone they know were sexual assault, common assault, and homicide. Adolescents victimizing people they did not know generally committed common assault, forcible confinement, armed robbery, and robbery Richard Lusignan, "Risk Assessment and Offender-Victim relationship in Juvenile Offenders" International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Vol 51, No. 4, 433-443 (2007)
One particularly well known example of a class at increased risk to varying forms of attacks is the prostitute. These people have been known anecdotally to have an abnormally high incidence of violent crime, and such crimes go unresolved frequently. Victimological studies of the matter might investigate current societal mores (expectations, roles, social status), legal status of prostitutes, typical working/living conditions, statistical analysis of the actual increased risk and secondary risk factors, and the economic activity of a prostitute.[citation needed]
Another example is when the victim actively precipitates or initiates the crime scene, for example, by starting a fight or baiting another individual. One quarter or 25 % of all homicides have been historically victim-precipitated. Id., see [9]
A sexual assault or rape is a poor example; in fact, such ideas about provocation are "gut-level and irrational." See, David O. Friedrichs, University of Scranton, The problem of reconciling divergent perspectives on urban crime: Personal experience, social ideology and scholarly research, Qualitative Sociology, Volume 4, Number 3 (September, 1981), at pp. 217-228, abstract retrieved at [10]
The study of victims is multidisciplinary. It does not just cover victims of crime, but also victims of (traffic) accidents, natural disasters, war crimes and abuse of power. The professionals involved in victimology may be scientists, practitioners and policy makers. Studying victims can be done from the perspective of the individual victim but also from an epidemiological point of view.
The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is a tool to measure the existence of actual, rather than reported crimes -- the victimization rate. Official web site The National Crime Victimization Survey is the United State\'s: "primary source of information on crime victimization. Each year, data are obtained from a nationally represented sample of 77,200 households comprising nearly 134,000 persons on the frequency, characteristics and consequences of criminal victimization in the United States. This survey enables the (government) to estimate the likelihood of victimization by rape, sexual assault, robbery, assault, theft, household burglary, and motor vehicle theft for the population as a whole as well as for segments of the population such as women, the elderly, members of various racial groups, city dwellers, or other groups." Official web site
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the NCVS reveals that, from 1994 to 2005, violent crime rates have declined, reaching the lowest levels ever recorded. Official web site Property crimes continue to decline. Official web site
There is one strain of thought that society itself is the victim of many crimes, especially such homicide felonies as murder and manslaughter. This "no man is an island ... ask not for whom the bell tolls" John Donne, For Whom the Bell Tolls. sentiment has been espoused by many lawyers, judges, and academics.[citation needed] Some district attorneys feel they represent all of society, while some feel they are the lawyer for the crime victim.[citation needed]
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