Психология и социология/12. Социальная психология

PhD in Psychology Lamash I. V.

Kharkiv national university of internal affairs, Ukraine

Key Concepts in Victimology: Foreign Research

Victimology is science of study of the relationship between victims and violators of law or offenders.

As a concept, victimology is difficult to universally define, due to the fact that different people define victimology in varying ways. At best, one can only forward a broad definition of victimology and acknowledge that other definitions do exist. As a “recently developed sub-discipline of criminology” victimology focuses equally on victims as it does on crime[2].

The psychology of victims and the dynamics of victimhood have been largely ignored by scholars and clinicians. While in past years the tendency has been to blame victims, more recently the tide has turned. It is now politically incorrect to explore the role of victims in violent systems, as exploring the psychology of victims has become synonymous with blaming the victim[4].

Within victimology, the victim’s experience, events leading to victimisations, victimisations themselves and the response of society and organisations to victimisations are all studied. To clarify, victimology studies events where persons, institutions or communities are significantly injured or damaged. In an academic sense, the term ‘victimology’ is translated as ‘a system of knowledge’ of victims[3].

In modern victimology we can define the next key concepts:

1. “Victim” has it roots in the early religious notions of suffering, sacrifice and death. This concept of “victim” was well known in the ancient civilizations, especially in Babylonia, Palestine, Greece, and Rome. In each of these civilizations the law mandated that the victim should be recognized as a person who deserved to be made whole again by the offender.

2. “Crime victim” is a person who has been physically, financially or emotionally injured and/or had their property taken or damaged by someone committing a crime.

3. “Victimogenesis” refers to the origin or cause of a victimization; the constellation of variables which caused a victimization to occur.

4.“Victim Precipitation” a victimization where the victim causes, in part or totally, their own victimization.

5. “Vulnerability” is a physical, psychological, social, material or financial condition whereby a person or an object has a weakness which could render them a victim if another person or persons would recognize these weaknesses and take advantage of them.

6. “General Victim” is a person who has been physically, financially or emotionally injured and/or had their property taken or damaged by someone, an event, an organization or a natural phenomenon.

7.“Victimization” refers to an event where persons, communities and institutions are damaged or injured in a significant way. Those persons who are impacted by persons or events suffer a violation of rights or significant disruption of their well being.

8. “Victimology” is an academic scientific discipline which studies data that describes phenomena and causal relationships related to victimizations. This includes events leading to the victimization, the victim’s experience, its aftermath and the actions taken by society in response to these victimizations. Therefore, victimology includes the study of the precursors, vulnerabilities, events, impacts, recoveries, and responses by people, organizations and cultures related to victimizations.

9.“Abuse of Power” is the violation of a national or international standard in the use of organized powerful forces such that persons are injured physically, mentally, emotionally, economically, or in their rights, as a direct and intentional result of the misapplication of these forces.

10.“Victim Assistance, Support or Services” are those activities which are applied in response to victimizations with the intention of relieving suffering and facilitating recovery. This includes offering information, assessments, individual interventions, case advocacy, system advocacy, public policy and programme development.

11. “Victim Recovery” is the resumption of the same or better level of functionality as was enjoyed prior to victimization. Persons who have been victimized vary in their level of mental health and well-being prior to their victimization. Consequently, victimization affects each person in a different way

and causes differing degrees of injury or trauma. In their recovery it is necessary for victims to first try to regain their previous level of functioning plus learn from their misfortune and hopefully exceed their previous level of functionality. To be recovered suggests that a person has at least regained their prior level of well-being and at best, has exceeded it. This state may be measured by identifying their previous mental condition and determining if they have at least regained that prior

status using the criteria of: trust in others, autonomy of self, individual initiative, competency in daily activities, self-identity, interpersonal intimacy, control over personal situations, successful relationships, safety in daily activities, acknowledgment of memory, trauma symptoms have become manageable, self esteem is restored, resourcefulness is achieved, and there is an improved ability to

ward off potential threats.

12. “Child Abuse” is the intentional application of sexual, physical, emotional or psychological injury to a child to include neglect at the hands of her or his parents or care-provider within the confines of their family or place of care.

13. “Victim Offender Mediation” is a formal process for face-to-face meetings in the presence of a trained mediator between a victim of a crime and his/her offender who committed that crime. This is also called victim-offender dialogue, victim-offender conferencing, victim-offender reconciliation, or restorative justice. Often the victim and the offender are joined by their respective families and community members or other persons related to the crime event. In these meetings, the ffender

and the victim talk to each other about the victimization, the effects it had on their lives, and their feelings about it. The aim is to create a mutually agreeable plan to repair any damage or injury that occurred as a result of the crime in the hopes of permanently eliminating the conflict that caused the crime in the first place.

14. “Restorative Justice” is a systematic formal legal response to crime victimization that emphasizes healing the injuries that resulted from the crime and affected the victims, offenders and communities. This process is a departure from the traditional retributive form of dealing with criminals and victims which traditionally have generally perpetuated the conflict which resulted in the original crime.

15.“Victim Trauma” includes emotional and physical experiences that produce pain and injuries. Emotional injury is a normal response to an extremely abnormal event. It results from the pairing of a painful or frightening emotional experience with a specific memory which emerge and have a long-lasting effect on the life of a person. The more direct the exposure to the traumatic event, the higher the risk for emotional harm and prolonged effects.

16. “Crisis Intervention” is the provision of emergency psychological care to traumatized victims so as to help them return to an adaptive level of functioning and to prevent or mitigate the negative impact of psychological and emotional trauma.

17. “Compensation” is a formal administrative procedure provided by law which provides only money to victims for “out of pocket” real expenses directly resulting from the victimization to be paid by the state after the victim is found to qualify according to specific criteria determined by the respective state or federal law.

18. “Restitution” is a formal judicial procedure used by a judge after guilt is determined as part of a sentence which can provide money and/or services to the victim for damages or suffering which resulted from the victimization to be paid or performed by the offender.

19.“Victim Survey” is a periodic data collection and analysis process conducted usually by a government entity within the general population to study information about crime victims regardless whether they reported their victimization to the police or not. It typically uses a face-to-face or telephone interview (or sent questionnaire) and covers demographics, attitudes about crime and details about the victimizations experienced over the previous six months.

20.“Victim Rights” are privileges and procedures required by written law which guarantee victims specific considerations and treatment by the criminal justice system, the government and the community at large[1].

In conclusion, these key concepts can be used in the development of victimology as a field of study. Despite this, the continual development of the study could potentially lead to improvement, and could therefore result in a more successful development of victimology overall.

References

1. Dussich J.P.J. Victimology: Past, Present and Future/ J.P.J. Dussich // Resource Material Series. – 2006. - №70. - P 116-129.

2. Karmen A. Crime Victims: An Introduction to Victimology/ A. Karmen. - Cengage Learning, 2012. - 560p.

3. Sebba L. Victimology and the sociology of new disciplines A research agenda/L.Sebba, T. Berenblum//International review of victimology. – 2014. – Т. 20. – №. 1. – P. 7-30.

4. Zur O. Rethinking "Don't Blame the Victim": Psychology of Victimhood/ O.Zur //Journal of Couple Therapy. - 1994. - №4 (3/4). – Р. 15-36.