Victimology: What Is It And What Is Its Object Of Study?
“28-year-old woman found dead in her home. Her husband called the police forces shortly after in order to confess to her murder, and later shot himself in the head with a gun.
This type of news, unfortunately, is published or broadcast with certain frequency by the media when a crime is committed. When these types of acts occur, police services and justice act, investigating what happened and taking into account a wide variety of knowledge when determining what could have happened and why it happened, based on the evidence.
The science that deals with studying crime and its causes, ways to avoid it and how to act with criminals is criminology. However, there is an essential element that does not appear among the above… Where is the victim? There is a discipline, currently inserted within criminology, that is responsible for its study: victimology
Coined by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham this term refers to the scientific discipline derived from criminology that studies victims of crime in the various phases of victimization.
The creation of this discipline has allowed both the study and treatment of victims and family members of all types of crimes, which traditional criminology ignored to focus on the figure of the criminal. It is a relatively young scientific discipline, with its scientific beginnings in the 1930s.
This discipline has numerous variants that have been focusing their attention on different aspects and having different interpretations of reality. However, All existing theories and perspectives have their objective of study in common
It can be said that, in some way, victimology focuses its attention precisely on the people who are in the greatest situation of vulnerability and who, consequently, are the first to need to study the type of experiences they go through, their sources of discomfort and possible solutions.
The main object of study of this discipline is the victim and their characteristics as well as their relationship with the offender and their role within the criminal situation.
Specifically, the set of factors that cause the person to become a victim are analyzed, whether the situation has been caused by a second person or is due to one’s own actions or chance (such as a work accident for example), the relationship of the facts with current law and the possible repair of damages and the relationship between the aspects that can cause a person to be a victim and the occurrence of the crime.
What is a victim?
To better understand this object of study, it is necessary to define what is meant by victim. According to resolution 40/34 of 1985 of the UN General Assembly, such is understood to be the subject/s who have suffered physical, psychological or emotional damage, or an attack and diminution of their fundamental rights as a consequence of actions or omissions that violate the legislation.
In the same way, Their loved ones or people who have suffered harm by assisting the victim will also be considered as such
Thus, it is understood that the damage experienced by victims is not an isolated phenomenon that only affects them individually, but rather that the person who suffers it is inserted in a social fabric through which discomfort and deterioration in quality of life are transmitted.
Methodology
As a scientific discipline, victimology has always been situated in an empiricist position, making inductive hypotheses from the observed cases. In this way, it requires surveys and observations of cases and victims in order to develop valid hypotheses that can help explain victimization processes.
Biopsychosocial elements, relationship with the subject who commits the crime and the crime are fundamental clues in order to develop a consistent study of the victim and their situation in the crime. However, this science must take into account both the need for its immediate use and the need to resemble other natural and social sciences.
The techniques used are the observation of reality, the study and analysis of cases and statistics, interviews and techniques coming from other sciences such as psychology, medicine, history, economics or computer science, among others.
The main mechanism by which victimology can act is through the reporting of a crime, together with the testimony of those affected. Even the absence of these elements is an important source of information, given that it reflects the position of the various social groups and individuals regarding the system.
Types of victims
As a science that studies victims of criminal offenses, numerous authors have made various classifications of victim typologies.
One of them is that of Jimenez de Asúa who divides the victims into:
1. Determined victim
It is considered as such that which is voluntarily chosen by the criminal l, his choice not being a product of chance. An example would be crimes of passion, revenge or crimes carried out by family members or close friends.
2. Indifferent victim
Picked at random The crime could be carried out with any other person without producing any change in the criminal. An example of this could be fraud or scams, such as shell scams. It is also observed in some criminal acts carried out by psychopaths and serial killers.
3. Resistant victim
That victim who is capable of resisting and defending himself or that is attacked because or knowing that the subject was going to defend himself.
4. Victim contributor
Not always when a situation occurs in which a subject is the victim of a crime, this is a subject with no connection to the criminal act. Thus, There are victims who actively participate in the crime, although it is possible that they act under duress
Role in victim protection
Apart from studying the victim and the process through which he has become suchvictimology also has a very prominent role in post-crime action
Specifically, its scope of study allows the creation of services for victims, contributing together with psychologists and other professionals to prepare assistance programs, such as the creation of crisis centers, official protection floors, witness protection programs. Likewise, information and support provided to victims are generally the most important services.
On the other hand, efforts are also made to prevent the dynamics of personal relationships that usually generate the appearance of victims. In this way, victimology is in contact with many branches of psychology and forensic sciences.
Ethical caution
As a science that establishes close contact with crime victims, victimology must have special caution in the procedures used when carrying out their activity It must be taken into account that the victim of a crime, in addition to suffering the crime per se, is subjected to the stress and tension produced by the investigation process (also reliving the event, often traumatic), and subsequently dealing with the consequences. (physical, psychological, social or labor) caused by the crime.
In this sense, victimology must try not to cause secondary and/or tertiary victimization with its application in practice, that is, it must try to prevent harm to the victim by the mere fact of recounting, repeating or reliving traumatic experiences, both at an institutional and social level.
Marshall, L.E. & Marshall, W.L. (2011). Empathy and Antisocial Behavior, Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology 22, 5: 742-759.
McDonald, W. (1976). Towards a bicentennial revolution in criminal justice: the return of the victim, The American Criminal Law Review 13: 649-673.
Neuman, E. (1994). The role of the victim in conventional and unconventional crimes, 2nd ed: Buenos Aires: University.
Varona, G.; de la Cuesta, JL; Mayordomo, V. and Pérez, AI (2015) Victimology. An approach through its fundamental concepts as tools of understanding and intervention.
