Victimology: concepts, theories, and applications

Victimology means the study of victimization, including how victims and offenders are related to one another. In addition, the connections that victims have with the criminal justice system and other institutions and groups are important (Van Ness, 1986). However, victimology may also relate to violations of human rights and is not only used to refer to the victims of crime. Victimology is important to study as it relates to criminal opportunity and the solving of violent criminal acts, because it can help give the police ideas about who might have committed the crime and why the victim was targeted (Karmen, 2003). Some argue that looking at who might be more crime-prone means that the victim will get blamed, but this is not the case. The intention of the study of victimology is not to blame the victim, but only to determine what might have provoked the attacker to commit the crime (Van Ness, 1986). If the police can figure out what makes a person a target, they can better protect the citizens they serve.

Crimes are rarely as random as they seem, and the more that police can learn about criminals the more they can train their officers to pay attention to certain traits or other concerns that might tip them off to criminal activity (Karmen, 2003). This does not mean that the police will start telling potential victims how to act and what to do, because that would require too much control of society overall. Instead, the police can use victimology information to profile killers and other violent criminals. It is not just about how the person injured the victims, but also about where the victims were, what they were wearing, or any other traits that seem to be the same across all victims for a particular criminal. Often, there is a pattern that will develop (Karmen, 2003). Even though some of the victims cannot change the thing that might make them attractive to the criminal (such as gender, body size, or hair color), they can be aware of the issue and learn to be more careful if they are in the area where the criminal has been active.

There are different classes of victimology. These include primary, secondary, and tertiary crime victims. Primary crime victims are those that have actually experienced the crime (Karmen, 2003). They may have been killed, but they could also be the victim of some other type of violent crime such as an assault or a rape. Secondary victims are the immediate family members and friends of the primary crime victim (Karmen, 2003). They experience pain and suffering because of what happened to their loved one. The tertiary victims are the farthest removed from the crime. They are not related to the crime, but they may see the crime on the news or hear about it through other media and be upset by the footage to which they are exposed (Sebba, 1996). All of these victims will have different reactions to the crime that was committed, but they will all be affected by it (Karmen, 2003). How deeply they are affected will relate to where they fall on the spectrum (primary, secondary, or tertiary), but it will also relate to who they are as people and what kinds of personalities they have (Sebba, 1996).

Victimology has several theories, as well, including the Routine Activities Theory, the Threefold Model, and the Situated Transaction Model. The Routine Activities Theory states that crime occurs because specific conditions all come together at the same time (Karmen, 2003). There needs to be an offender who is motivated and a target that is considered to be suitable by that offender. The only other thing needed is an absence of guardians (Karmen, 2003). That last requirement actually occurs quite often, because there are very few places where there is real security. There are many, many private spaces, such as the insides of homes or parks or other areas where there are very few people around to help a crime victim. Because of that, the Routine Activities Theory basically shows that there are people everywhere who will commit a crime if they can get away with it, and there are always people who are available to be victimized simply by virtue of existing in a place where there is no protection.

The Threefold Model indicates that conditions which are supportive of crime fall into three categories: predisposing factors, attracting factors, and precipitating factors (Karmen, 2003). The predisposing factors are demographic characteristics that the victims all have in common, such as their age, their gender, their marital status, or where they live. If they live in a poor neighborhood, do not have much money, and are in areas that are high in crime (or involved in activities that are related to crime) they will be more likely to be victims (Karmen, 2003). In short, they are predisposed to being victims of crime because they have either put themselves into harm's way with their actions or they fit the criteria for which the criminal was looking. Precipitating factors involve space and time, and are mostly related to simply ending up in the wrong place and at the wrong time - which can happen to anyone (Karmen, 2003). The attracting factors are options, lifestyle, and choices that people make on a daily or otherwise predictable basis, as these can make someone more likely to attract the criminal element (Karmen, 2003).