Victimology

• Since the 1980s, victimology has been a growing area of concern
• This has been caused by, and led to, a rapid growth in victim surveys
• The biggest is the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CWES), formally known as the British Crime Survey, which shines a critical light on OCS based on police recorded crime, and uncovers a 'dark figure' of hidden crimes and victims that the CJS has failed to be aware of or deal with

Evidence to suggest that the CJS is now more victim-centred

• Victims increasingly viewed as 'customers' of CJS, and success of CJS is now judged on the extent to which it has met the need of victims rather than how well it dealt with offenders
• Parts of the CJS are dedicated to victims, e.g. Victim Support
• Growing emphasis on restorative justice
• In 2013, Home Office announced that victims of low-level / anti-social crime would be able to select from a list of out-of-court punishments they think the offender should be given
• New policy on how police must record crime introduced in 2002, gave priority to victims' accounts, not police view of evidence

Evaluation

• Critical victimologists - not all victims treated equally by CJS - what counts as a victim is socially constructed, many unreported/unrecorded victims e.g. domestic abuse, green crime
• Some victims are denied label of 'victim', blamed for own victimisation, e.g. victim proneness  (foolish for falling for a scam) or victim precipitation (bringing crime on themselves)

• Physical and emotional impact on victims - Often experience other physical and/or emotional impacts other than physical harm
• Creation of 'indirect' victims - Other than the victims, people such as friends, relatives and co-witnesses to the crime suffer
• Fear of victimisation - Crime may make people disproportionately scared of becoming a victim, women more afraid of going out, yet young men are main victims of violence from strangers
• Secondary victimisation - In addition to impact of crime itself, may suffer further victimisation from CJS
• Creation of 'waves of harm' - Hate crimes may create waves of harm which radiate out, intimidate whole communities

Miers (1989) identifies 3 features to this approach:

• Focuses on interpersonal crimes of violence
• Aims to identify factors that produce patterns in victimisation: 'victim proneness' and 'victim precipitation'
• Aims to identify victims who have contributed to their own victimisation
• Hans Von Hentig's (1948) study identified females, elderly or mentally ill people as being more prone to be victims, implied that they 'invite' it by being that kind of person
• Wolfgang's study of homicides in Philadelphia found that 26% involved 'victim precipitation' - victim triggered events leading to homicide, e.g. being first to use violence

• Left-wing approach based on conflict theories such as Marxism and feminism
• Look at how wider social issues, including CJS, produce victimisation
• Structural factors, such as patriarchy and poverty, place powerless groups at greater risk
• Criticises positivist victimology for failing to take into account structural inequalities
• Social deprivation - weakest / most deprived most likely to be victims
• Lack of protection for certain groups (e.g. ethnic minorities) by CJS
• Social inequalities, e.g. patriarchy means men are socialised into sense of superiority
• State has power to apply or deny label of 'victim', applies to some and withholds from others
• Tombs and Whyte (2007) argue CJS has tendency to 'fail to label' certain crimes as crimes, hides crimes of powerful and denies powerless victims redress, powerless are most likely to be victimised yet least likely to have this acknowledged by the state
• Tombs and Whyte (2007) show that 'safety crimes' often explained away as fault of 'accident prone' workers
• Malby and Walklate (1994) argue victimisation is form of structural powerlessness
• Christie claims stereotypical 'ideal victim' in society is weak, innocent and blameless

Positivist victimology

• Could easily be called victim blaming
• Identifies certain patterns but ignores wider structural factors which influence victimisation

Critical victimology

• Valuable in drawing attention to the way that 'victim' status is constructed by power, and how this benefits powerful at the extent of the powerless
• Disregards the role victims may play in bringing victimisation on themselves through own choices e.g. not making homes secure, or own offending
• Downplays role of law, police and other CJS agencies in not tackling crime effectively and contributing to victimisation

• On average, 1 in 4 people are a victim of a crime each year
• Some social groups don't only have higher chances of becoming a victim, but are more likely to be a victim of crime on more than one occasion (repeat victimisation)

• Poorest sections of w/c most likely victims, highest rates found among 'hard pressed' - unemployed, long term sick and low-income families, and areas of high levels of deprivation
• 2014/15 CSEW showed that 20% of those in poorest areas are victims each year, compared to 13% in wealthiest areas
• 'Inverse victimisation law' is that most deprived, who have least valuable material possessions, most likely to be victims
• Those who steal from poor are usually also poor people

• CSEW shows women more likely than men to have high levels of fear of crime, yet young males aged 16-24 have twice the risk of young women to be victim of violent crime
• Certain types of crime that women more likely to be victims of: honour crimes, domestic violence, sexual violence, stalking, harassment, people trafficking
• Of the 150 people killed each year by current or former partner, 80% are female
• Walklate - police take more serious approach to domestic violence now
• Only 40% of domestic violence incidents reported to police, 5% result in conviction
• Walklate - only 1/10 **** victims report crime, how **** trials treat women and low conviction rate of 6%

• Wilson - young people are most likely to be victims of violent crime, 2007/08 CSEW found that likelihood of being victim decreases with age: 16-24 year olds 9x as likely than those aged 75+ years
• Lifestyles of young don't just give them greater opportunity to commit crime, but also expose them to greater risk of being victims

• 2014/15 CSEW showed that ethnic minorities are at greater risk than white people of being victims of crime in general, as well as racially motivated crimes
• Black people are 4x more likely to be victim of homicide than white people
• Ethnic minority groups more likely to be worried about crime than white population
• Partially explained by younger age of most ethnic minorities, social class and deprivation
• Ethnic minorities more likely to report feeling under-protected yet over-controlled by police