Victims of Crime

?
View mindmap
  • Victims of Crime
    • United Nations Definition Victims = those who have suffered harm through acts or omissions that violate laws of the state
    • Christie (1986) argues 'victim' is socially constructed
    • Positivist Victimology
      • Miers (1989) defines positivist Victimology as having 3 features:
        • Aims to identify factors that produce patterns in victimisation
        • Focuses on interpersonal crimes of violence
        • Aims to identify victims who have contributed to their own victimisation
      • Evaluation
        • Identifies certain patterns of interpersonal victimisation but ignores wider structural factors that have an influence
        • Easily tip over into victim blaming
        • Ignores situations where victims are unaware of their victimisation
    • Critical Victimology
      • Based on conflict theories & share same approach as critical criminology
      • Focuses on two elements
        • Structural factors
          • E.g. poverty & patriarchy
          • Place powerless groups at greater risk of victimisation
        • States power to apply or deny the label of victim
          • Victim is a social construct
          • State applies label of victim to some but withholds it from others
      • Evaluation
        • Disregards role victims play in bringing victimisation on themselves
        • It's valuable in drawing attention to way that 'victim' status is constructed by power & how this benefits the powerful

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar Sociology resources:

See all Sociology resources »See all Crime and deviance resources »