14. Victimology
Summary and Review
Dr. Jordana K. Norgaard and Dr. Benjamin Roebuck
✅ Summary
- Victimology is a grounded social science that studies victimisation within society; it is derived from the narratives and experiences of survivors of crime.
- While the term victim is a legal term recognized within the criminal justice system and used in victim rights legislation, the term survivor is preferred since the word victim may be associated with weakness or passivity.
- Early theories of victimology include victim precipitation theory and routine activity theory.
- Critical victimology combines the concept of the ideal victim with intersectionality in an effort to deconstruct victim blaming.
- There are a number of surveys that are designed to capture the experiences of victims, the largest of which is the General Social Survey.
- There are numerous challenges in conducting victimisation research, including operationalising criminal victimisation, flawed modes of data collection, and a lack of intersectionality.
- A growing number of commissions and inquiries have demonstrated the devasting impact of colonial and patriarchal policies that have disproportionally harmed Indigenous peoples, in particular Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people.
- In Canada, the majority of victim rights are legislated and administered through provincial and territorial governments. In 2015, the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights (CVBR) came into effect.
- Options available to victims in Canada include victim restitution, compensation, and victim impact statements.
- The criminal justice system treats crime as an offence against the state, not the victim; most of the legally-binding rights in the process belong to the accused.
- Victims can receive help through a variety of victim services throughout each stage of the criminal justice system. Victim-based services can be police-based, court-based, or community-based.
- Victimisation can affect people physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
- Trauma and violence-informed care (TVIC) approaches are policies and practices that recognise the connections between violence, trauma, negative health outcomes and behaviours.
🖊️ Key Terms
attribution error: the over-emphasis of personal characteristics while devaluing environmental characteristics when judging others.
community-based victim services: provides direct services to victims and receive funding either in whole or in part by the provincial and/or federal government responsible for criminal justice matters.
compensation: the repayment of losses to the victim given by the state.
crime victim assistance program: a provincial and/or territorial program that provides financial benefits to help offset monetary losses and supports recovery for victims. Programs and eligibility vary by province and/or territory in Canada.
critical victimology: a branch of victimology that combines the concept of the ideal victim with intersectionality. The goal is to deconstruct victim blaming discourses.
crown or court-based services: provides support for people who have become involved in the criminal justice process as either victims or witnesses, offering information, assistance and referrals to victims and witnesses with the goal of trying to make the court process less intimidating.
dark figure of crime: crime that goes undetected, unreported or unrecorded and is not included in official crime data sources.
gateway right: a right that is a prerequisite to accessing other rights.
General Social Survey (GSS): a series of annual surveys conducted by Statistics Canada since 1985 to gather data on social trends and to provide information on specific policy issues of current or emerging interest.
General Social Statistics Program (GSSP): the new name used to refer to the General Social Survey to better reflect the data that is integrated.
intersectionality: the interconnected nature of social categorisations such as race, class, gender, age and the multiplicative effect on victimisation. Developed by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989.
operationalising: defining criminological concepts or events so they can be observed and measured in a scientific matter.
police-based victim services: services provided following a victim’s first contact with police, offering information, support, assistance, referral, and court orientation.
posttraumatic change: a concept that incorporates posttraumatic stress and posttraumatic growth responses to trauma, while also exploring ambivalence and paradox in personal narratives about change.
posttraumatic growth (PTG): a framework for understanding positive changes that trauma survivors experience over time from the process of reflecting on and reframing their narratives.
posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): a disorder caused by exposure to extremely traumatic and stressful situations that fall outside the realm of normal, everyday, individual experiences.
resilience: a process of positive adaptation in the context of significant adversity. This involves navigating and negotiating tensions arising from adversity in a way that promotes personal well-being.
restitution: when an offender repays the victim for the financial losses they have incurred as a result of a crime.
re-victimisation: the process by which victims feel victimised for a second time by the criminal justice system and/or legal process.
routine activity theory: theory by Cohen and Felson that posits that the risk of crime increases when there is the convergence of the presence of a motivated offender, suitable targets, and a lack of a capable guardian.
trauma: the experience of and response to an overwhelmingly negative event or series of events.
trauma and violence-informed care (TVIC): policies and practices that recognise the connections between violence, trauma, negative health outcomes, and behaviours.
trauma-informed practice: a strengths-based framework grounded in an understanding of and responsiveness to the impact of trauma.
victimology: the scientific study of victimisation within society that is grounded in the narratives and experiences of survivors of crime.
victim blaming: when a victim of crime is held responsible, in whole or in part, for their own victimisation.
victim impact statement: a written or oral statement made to the court by a victim or victim representative.
victim precipitation: when the victim is the initial aggressor in the action that led to their harm or loss.
victim safety unit: a specialised service that provides victims with ongoing information about the accused or offender. Information provided to the victim(s) can include the area within a province the accused or offender is residing, court dates and what happens at court, if the accused or offender is in the community or in custody, if the accused or offender is in custody, the name and address of the correctional center, and if the offender is in jail, the release date, length of their release and conditions the offender must followed upon release.
victim services: a number of different programs available to victims of crime and their families that provide criminal justice information and support, safety planning, practical and emotional support, and information and referral.
🧠 Chapter Review
Crossword
Fill in the term in the right-hand column and it will display in the crossword puzzle. Be sure to include spaces where appropriate.
Discussion Questions
- Using an intersectional lens, what types of questions related to victimisation are missing from the General Social Survey? Which type of questions should be included?
- Imagine you have been a victim of a crime and you have agreed to make a victim impact statement to the court. What information would you want to share? Use this Victim Impact Statement and prepare your own.
- Do you think all victims of crime deserve compensation? Write an argument both for and against.
- Watch the documentary, After Candace: The Art of Healing, and respond to three discussion questions from the film guide
- Watch the documentary, nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand, and make a list to document how Indigenous Peoples in the film experienced racism. Make an additional list of ways that Indigenous Peoples in the film showed strength and resilience.
- Explain the concept of posttraumatic change. How does this apply to survivors of crime?
