Relevance of Victimology for Criminology - Essay Example

Relevance of victimology for criminology The modern world has seen a significant increase in incidents of crime and this has led to the development of the field of criminology which attempts to find out the reasons, circumstances, and the individuals who commit crimes. It is essential to note that within this field, there has developed the concept of victimology, which seeks to make a study of the victims of criminal activities. Victimology is increasingly developing into one of the most significant aspects of criminology because it allows for the development of a situation where importance is attached to the manner through which victims of crimes are likely to behave or react to situations where a potential or actual crime is actually taking place. Victimology is extremely relevant to criminology because it allows for the development of a better perspective concerning the complex relationship between crime and its victims. Victimology is relevant to criminology because it ensures that there is a scientific basis for the manner through which the relationship between offenders and injured parties develop (Lusignan, 2007). Furthermore, it enhances this study through finding out the manner through which victims suffer both during and after the various events that are involved when a crime is committed. This allows for the development of a basis upon which crime comes to be viewed from the perspective of the victims rather than that developed either by investigators or the perpetrators themselves. This study provides a unique perspective within the field of criminology because it helps in developing an understanding for the diverse ways trough which crimes come to affect victims while at the same time allowing for the development of ways through which victims can be helped to get over the events that have come to affect or traumatise them. It is through the study of victims that the various causes and effects of crime can be determined and this can help in the sensitisation of the society to avoid behaving in such ways that might create a situation where they end up becoming victims. Through the study of different circumstances surrounding crime, it becomes possible for investigators to get a first-hand account of how events took place and how the victims ended up being affected by these events. Victimology is a scientific approach to crime which allows for the development of the background of criminal activities. The creation of a background involves finding out whether the perpetrator and victims were strangers or were people who had known each other for either a long or short time (Garkawe, 2001). Through finding out such information, it becomes easier to build a better picture concerning events that might have led to crime taking place. Some studies have shown that there are circumstances where the victims themselves, either consciously or otherwise, provoke the actions of perpetrators and this to such an extent that the situation gets out of control (Miethe, 1985). Such situations often require more investigations to find out whether the relationship between perpetrator and victim might have led to the latter person being targeted directly or indirectly through the destruction of property or something that they hold dear. Such relationships are often very important in finding out the origins of crime and how they come to affect members of society, specifically the victims, who are often traumatised to such an extent that they have to carry the scars for the rest of their lives. It is through victimology that it is possible for greater criminological research to be conducted concerning the diverse ways that victims and perpetrators often end up finding themselves in situations which leads to the latter party committing actions that go against societal norms while the former are not only potentially injured, but also have to deal with serious psychological harm. In most circumstances, victimology studies the costs that are involved when individuals become victims of crime and this is often through the development of a better perspective concerning the economic, physical, and psychological trauma that is involved in the process (Harding, 1994). In the United Kingdom, the conception of victimhood when it comes to crime has followed a generalised western perspective where the extent of the effects of crime on victims tends to be largely underestimated. It is often believed that the victims of crime were for the most part passive while the events were happening to them and that they did not do enough to ensure that the crimes did not happen to them. This is especially true considering that many languages of European origin have definitions of victim, which mean sacrificial animal or lamb (Van Dijk, 2009). When such definitions are considered, one will find that victims further become traumatised by events because they are not able to gain the support that they need to ensure that they get over the events that affected them. Instead, the society plays a major role in making sure that victims are essentially isolated through their being considered to have been mere observers in situations which were beyond their control. Therefore, victimhood has come to have a negative meaning which lay at the door of to victims an appearance of submissiveness where they did not have any choice or that they willingly chose not to do anything to resist the perpetrators of crimes against them. In such situations, victimology becomes relevant because it allows for an understanding of the various motivations behind the different reactions of victims and debunks the belief that victims are often submissive individuals. Victimology is relevant for criminology because it allows for greater scientific research to be conducted concerning the ways through which society perceives victims and how the latter are affected by these perceptions. As has been seen above, as a result of the negative meanings associated with victims, a large number of the latter individuals develop problems in recovering from criminal events such as rape (Abrams et al., 2003). This is mainly because as a result of the stigma that they experience, victims end up developing problems in recovery especially in circumstances where they are touted as having been passive to the events that were taking place around them. This perception leads to great suffering among victims because these individuals do not receive the support that the need to ensure their full recovery. Victimology is a field which is able to identify the circumstances under which victims end up preferring to be distanced from the idea of victimhood and how this action often leads to their not being able to recover effectively from traumatic events. Therefore, victimology allows for the development of an understanding of not only the events surrounding victims when crime takes place, but also the ways that they are able to cope with the trauma that a significant number of them experience in the aftermath of these events. Furthermore, it allows for a better perspective of victimhood in the context of criminology in such a way that victims end up playing one of the central roles in the study of criminal events. Victimology is relevant for criminology because it seeks to humanise the victims of crime and this in such a way that a better understanding of these individuals is developed (Lusignan, 2007). This is particularly true of circumstances where society values strong independent individuals while leads to situations where victims end up choosing not to report incidents of crimes against them in fear that they will be seen as helpless. When such traumatic events are not shared with anybody, it is likely that these victims will develop low esteem in addition to unreasoning fear that they might become victims again. Victimology helps in the creation of a clearer perspective of crime based on its effects on victims and this allows for the further development of criminology. In conclusion, the discussion above has shown that victimology is extremely relevant to criminology because it allows for the development of a better perspective concerning the complex relationship between crime and its victims. It has shown that victimology is relevant to criminology because it ensures that there is a scientific basis for the manner through which the relationship between offenders and injured parties develop. Moreover, it is a scientific approach to crime which allows for the development of the background of criminal activities. It has been noted that in most circumstances, victimology studies the costs that are involved when individuals become victims of crime. This is a circumstance that comes about through the development of a better perspective concerning the economic, physical, and psychological trauma that is involved in the process. Furthermore, the discussion has found that victimology is relevant for criminology because it allows for greater scientific research to be conducted concerning the ways through which society perceives victims and how the latter are affected by these perceptions. Finally, it has been found that victimology is relevant for criminology because it seeks to humanise the victims of crime and this in such a way that a better understanding of these individuals is developed. In this way, it is possible for crime to be understood from the perspective of victims; allowing for the expansion of criminology as a discipline. References Abrams, D., Viki, G.T., Masser, B., & Bohner, G. (2003). Perceptions of stranger and acquaintance rape: The role of benevolent and hostile sexism in victim blame and rape proclivity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 84, 111–125. Garkawe, S. (2001). Modern Victimology: Its Importance, Scope and Relationship with Criminology. Acta Criminologica, 14(2), 90–99. Harding, R. (1994). Victimisation, Moral Panics, and the Distortion of Criminal Justice Policy. Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 6, 27-42. Lusignan, R. (2007). Risk Assessment and Offender–Victim relationship in Juvenile Offenders. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 51(4), 433–443. Miethe, T.D. (1985). The Myth or reality of victim involvement in crime: A Review and comment on victim-precipitation research. Sociological focus, 18(3), 209–220. Van Dijk, J. (2009). Free the Victim:A Critiqueof the Western Conception of Victimhood. International Review of Victimology, 16(1), 1 - 33. Read More