VICTIMOLOGY

DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
Provides a comparative overview of the
study of the victims and crime. This includes
research on the process, etiology and
consequences of criminal victimization .
The criminal justice’s response to crime
victims, both historically and more
recently, will be discussed in terms of the
changing role of victims in the criminal equation.
Topics covered may include restorative
justice, restitution, and mediation
programs now offered through the criminal
justice system.
 BASIC TERMINOLOGIES
Victimology is the scientific 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 social groups and institutions, such as
the media, businesses, and social movements.
Victimology is however not restricted to the study of
victims of crime alone but may cater to other forms of
human rights violations that are not necessarily crime.
(Karmen, 2004)
It also refer to the study of people harmed by criminals
(Wertham, 1949)
branch of criminology that scientifically studies the
relationship between an injured party and an
offender by examining the causes and the nature
of the consequent suffering. (britannica)
 BASIC TERMINOLOGIES
Victim. This term commonly refers to
individual who experience injury, loss
or hardship for any reason. (Karmen,
2004)

Victimization is an asymmetrical
relationship that is abusive,
destructive, parasitical, unfair, and in
many cases, in violation of the law.
 THE RISE OF VICTIMOLOGY
The origin of the academic discipline of victimology can
be traced back to:
1. Books
2. Articles
3. Research projects (Karmen, 2004)

These are initiated by criminologists during 1940s

and 1950s who focused on violators of the law
1. who they were
2. why they engaged in illegal
activities
3. how they were handled by the CJS
(Karmen, 2004)
Finally, through elimination process, for the search of
the solution of crime, they stumbled upon the
importance of victims.
 WHY SERIOUSLY STUDY VICTIMS?
They were the completely overlooked half of
the pair. (Mendelsohn, 1940)
The presumed vulnerabilities of certain kinds
of people, such as the
 very young
 Very old
 Migrants
 Mentally disturbed (Von Hentig, 1948)

The kinds of people in terms of factors like:

 Sex, race, age, whose actions contributed to their
own violent death (Wolfgang, 1958)
 BENEFITS FROM THE SCIENCE OF
VICTIMOLOGY
 More crimes can be prevented and more
criminals can be caught;
 Unrealistic fears can be calmed and unwarranted
complacency dispelled;
 Needless expenditures could be eliminated or
reduced;
 Reducing sufferings;
 Making CJS more responsive;
 Restoring victims to the financial condition they
were before the crime occurred.
CRIMINOLOGY AND VICTIMOLOGY-COMPARED
CRIMINOLOGY VICTIMOLOGY
1. Ask why certain individuals 1. Ask why certain individuals
commits crime, while others do become target of crimes while
not. others do not.
2. Concentrate on the offenders’ 2. Focus on the sources of
motive and background to vulnerability to criminal attack and
uncover the root cause of crime. the reasons some victims might
3. Recognizes that most people have for acting carelessly or even
occasionally break certain laws instigating trouble.
but are otherwise law abiding, 3. Realizes that anyone can suffer
only some graduate to become the misfortune being in a wrong
hardcore offenders and career place at a wrong time, but
criminal. wonders why certain individual are
4. Explores how social, economic and victimize over and over again.
political conditions generate 4. Examines personality traits, social
criminal activity factors an cultural imperatives
that compel some people to take
risks and put their lives in danger
Similarly, both criminologists and
victimologists:
 Place a great emphasis on proper
methods of gathering and
interpreting data
 Study how the CJS works.
 Their jobs are not well-paying fields
 IN CONTRAST, CRIMINOLOGY AND
VICTIMOLOGY

CRIMINOLOGY: VICTIMOLOGY:
 Several hundred years  Several decades old
old  Victimologists cannot
 Criminologists agree reach a consensus
among themselves to about the appropriate
limit their studies to boundaries of their
illegal activities field
 Criminology has a  Does not have a
distinct school of distinct school of
thought thought
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAWS
Primitive Laws. System of rules used by preliterate
societies to govern the tribe, clan or other gathering of
individuals
3 Characteristics:
1. Injurious acts were considered private wrong
2. Injured party was entitled to take action against the
wrongdoer
3. This action usually amounted to in-kind retaliation

What do these types of laws encourage?

 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAWS
Society’s evolution made people learned the art of writing
and reading, thus the development of written codes of
conduct.
 Code of Ur-Nammu, the early written code which dates
back in the 21st century BC. It treated certain wrong
such as theft or assault as private wrongs with the
injured party, being the victim.
 KING UR-NAMU
Who was King Ur-Nammu?
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAWS
The Code of Hammurabi (created ca. 1790 BC)
 Considered as one of the firs attempts to establish a
written code of conduct
 Established rules regarding theft, sexual relationship
and interpersonal violence
 Intended to replace blood feuds
 This code may have been “victim right statute” in
history. (Restoration equity between the offender
and the victim. The victim has to be made as whole
as possible and in turn forgave vengeance against
the offender).
The Code of Hammurabi in Tablet
KING HAMMURABI

Who was King Hammurabi?

 OTHER EARLY CODES AND LAWS
 The Mosaic Code-The Ten Commandments
 Subsequently became the foundation of Judeo-Christian
morality
 Became the basis for many of the laws in our modern society.
 Present in the Code are prohibition against theft, perjury and
murder.
 The Roman Law
 Derived from the 12 tables
 Written around 450 BC
 In 529, it became the Justinian Code
 Distinguish two major types of laws, the public and private
laws
 SOME EXAMPLES OF ROMAN LAWS ON CRIMES

 Law I.
 If a quadruped causes injury to anyone, let the owner
tender him the estimated amount of the damage; and
if he is unwilling to accept it, the owner shall, by way
of reparation, surrender the animal that caused the
injury.
 Law II.
 If you cause any unlawful damage . . . accidentally
and unintentionally, you must make good the loss,
either by tendering what has caused it, or by
payment.
 Law III.
 Anyone who, by means of incantations and magic
arts, prevents grain or crops of any kind belonging to
another from growing, shall be sacrificed to Ceres.
CAN ANYONE TELL HOW THE PHILIPPINE
PENAL LAW DEVELOPED?

CAN ANYONE TELL HOW THE LAW PROVIDES

REDRESS TO THE VICTIMS OF CRIMES?

CAN ANYONE TELL WHAT IS THE CODE OF

KALANTIAO?
 VICTIMOLOGY THEORIES
Benjamin Mendelsohn’s Theory of Victimization
 He classified victims into 6 distinct categories:
 The completely innocent victim (child or completely
unconscious)
 The victim with minor guilt (a woman who induces
miscarriage and dies as a result)
 The victim who is guilty as the offender (assist in the
commission of the crime)
 The victim more guilty that the offender (induced or
provoked others to commit crimes)
 The most guilty victim (aggression initiated by the
victim)
 The imaginary victim (paranoid)
von Hentig’s Theory of victimization

Established 3 broad classes of victims:

1. General classes of victims

2. The psychological types of victims
3. The activating sufferer
 von Hentig’s Theory of victimization
1. The general classes of victims:
1. The young (youth)
2. The female
3. The old (accumulated wealth and wealth-giving
power; physically weak)
4. The mentally defective (
5. Immigrants, minorities and dull normals
(feeling of helplessness; poor, dull minorities
are easy prey of swindlers)
 von Hentig’s Theory of victimization
2. The psychological types of victims:
1. The depressed
2. The acquisitive (excessive desire for gain)
3. The wanton (sensual disposition)
4. The lonesome and the heartbroken (mental facilities
weakened easy prey for criminal; death rackets)
5. The tormentor (abusive father and later killed by his wife
or children)
6. The blocked, exempted and fighting (enmesh in a losing
situation that defensive moves becomes impossible)

3. The activating Sufferer

This occurs when the victim is transformed into a perpetrator.
A number of factors operate as activators on the victim:
age, alcohol, loss of self confidence)
Schafer’s Theory of Victimization
 He attempted to classify victims on the basis of
responsibility instead of risk factor.
 Study of criminal-victim relationships
emphasize the need to recognize the role and
responsibility of the victim
 His conclusion: the functional role or
responsibility of the victim is to do nothing to
provoke others from attempting to injure him
and at the same time actively prevent such
attempts
 KARMEN’S THEORY OF
VICTIMIZATION
Victimologists study the reasons for how and why the
victim entered a dangerous situation. This does not
mean putting the blame on the victim but examines
the dynamics that resulted in the victim being in the
risky situation.
Victimology evaluates how police, prosecutors, courts
and related agencies interact with the victim. How
was the victim treated at each stage in the CJS?
Victimologists evaluate the effectiveness of efforts to
reimburse victims for the losses and meet the
victim’s personal and emotional needs.
 Other theories of Victimization
 Lifestyle Theory (Hindelang).
 Various change in everyday lifestyles are assumed to
present criminal opportunity by enhancing exposure
and proximity of victims or targets to motivated
offenders.
 Routine Activities Approach (Cohen and Felson).
 Examined the circumstances by looking at the
convergence of space, time, motivated offenders,
suitable victims or target and absence of capable
guardians.
 Criminal violations are treated as routine activities
that will occur when a set of circumstances converge.
 Emphasized the lack or absence of any of the three
factors (offender, victim, guardian would probably
prevent criminal activity.
 Other theories of Victimization
 Opportunity Model (Cohen)
 Exposure to potential offenders
 Proximity of the residence of the target and
the offender
 Guardianship-effectiveness of preventing
crime
 Target attractiveness-person or object
 Definition of certain crimes-establishing the
difficulty of committing crime-theft is easier
than robbery
 Other theories of Victimization
 Critical Victimology (Mawby and Walklate)
 Defined critical victimology as “an attempt to examine
the wider social context in which some versions of
victimology have become more dominant than others
and also to understand hpw those version of
victimology are interwoven with questions of policy
response and service delivery to the victims of
crimes.”
 They question why certain actions are defined as
criminal and others are not.
 Many crimes committed by wealthy or powerful or
even nations are not considered crimes. (example:
genocide, rape as a weapon of war, abuse of power)
 Other theories of Victimization
 Victim Blaming
 The theory posits that the through the acts
and other circumstances surrounding the
person of the victim himself or herself, he or
she became victim of crime
 WHAT AM I TO SUBMIT AT THE END OF THE
COURSE?

I The Criminal Justice System and Victims

1. The Criminal Courts
a. The MTC, MTCC
b. The Regional Trial Court
The Parties
1. The Victim 5. The Defense Attorney
2. The Perpetrator 6. The Courts
3. Law Enforcement 7. The Correctional System
4. The Prosecutor

 
  
II. The Civil Justice and the Victims
1. Civil Procedure
2. Juvenile Court
3. Restorative Justice
III. The Consequences of Victimization
1. Physical Consequences
2. Mental Consequences
3. Financial Consequences
4. Cost of White Collar Crimes
 IV. Special types of Victims
Homicide Victims Special Victim Population Child Victims
1. Female as Victims 1. HIV/AIDS Victims 1. Types of Child Abuse
2.Sexual Assault 2. Disabled Victims 2. Extent of the
3. Stranger Rape 3. Gay and Lesbian Problem
4. Acquaintance Victims 3. Cycle of Violence
5. Rape 4.Prisoners as Victims 4. Other Theories
6. Marital Rape 5. Violence in School: Regarding Child
7. Stalking Bullying to Homicide Abuse
8. Sexual Harassment 5. Special Types of Child
Abuse

Elder Victims Hate Crimes Homicide Victims

1. Elder Abuse 1. Cultural Awareness
2. Theories of Elder Abuse 2. Hate Crimes
3. Elder Victimization

Spouses as Victims
1. Theories of Spouse Abuse
2. The Criminal Justice Response
to Spouse Abuse
V. Special Victim Population
1. HIV/AIDS Victims
2. Disabled Victims
3. Gay and Lesbian Victims
4. Prisoners as Victims
VII. Victim’s Rights
1. Constitutional and Civil Rights of
the Victims
2. Violence Against Women Act

VIII. Compensation and Restitution of the

1. Victims
2. Compensation
3. Restitution