Victims and Victimization

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Chapter 4

• Victims and Victimization

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Introduction

• In this chapter we want to understand why person
  become victims. Is it due to their lifestyle,
  age, gender, income or is it something they
  cannot control?
• A young man was attempting to apprehend a
  shoplifter that had stolen 9 tubes of toothpaste
  from a national chain drugstore. After the
  employee was killed the store changed its policy
  on apprehending shoplifters

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Lesson Objectives

• Define what a crime victim is
• Explain patterns of victimization both
  geographical and social
• Identify Homicide victimization per 100,000
  persons between black and white
• Identify the annual rate of victimization for
  violent crime between Hispanic, white, black,
  American Indian, and Asian

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Objectives Cont

• Explain stranger vs non-stranger when it comes to
  victimization
• Explain intimate violence
• Identify other crime characteristics when it
  comes to drug use, time and place of occurence,
  and use of weapons
• Explain the lifestyle and routine activities
  theory
• Identify college students as victims and the
  homeless
• Reveal the economic cost and psychological impact
  of victimization
• Discuss victimization of citizens of newer white
  collar crime methods.

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Defining Victims and Studying Victimization

• Victimology the study of victims
• Generally focuses on street crime
• Victimization
• Crime victim defined one who suffers because of
  a crime

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The Patterning of Victimization

• Geographical Patterns
• West and Midwest highest victimization rates for
  violent crime (according to NCVS)
• West highest property crime victimization rate
• Cities have higher victimization rates than rural
  areas

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Social Patterns

• Gender, Race, and Ethnicity
• Males have higher victimization rate for violent
  crime than females
• Women have higher rate for rape victimization
• Blacks more likely to be homicide victims than
  whites
• The lower the family income, the higher the rate
  of victimization

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• Age
• Young people more likely to be victims of violent
  crimes than older people
• Race, Gender, Age Combined
• High victimization rates for young, black males
• Lowest rate for older, white women

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The Victim-Offender Relationship

• Strangers v. Nonstrangers
• Strangers commit less than half (of
  aggravated/simple assault, rape, robbery combined
  according to NCVS)
• Nonstrangers commit 67 of womens victimizations
• Perception of strangers committing rape is a myth

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Intimate Violence

• Refers to any rape/sexual assault, robbery or
  aggravated./simple assault committed by someone
  with a relationship to the victim
• Women are much more likely to suffer violence at
  the hands of intimates

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Perceived Race, Gender, and Age of Offenders

• Whites account for majority of all offenses
• Proportion of offenders perceived as black
  exceeds their proportion of national population
• For all violent crimes involving one offender,
  2/3 are perceived as being under 30 yrs. old
• Violent crime is intraracial (occurs within same
  race)

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Crime Characteristics

• Use of Alcohol and Other Drugs
• Offenders under influence in just over half of
  all violent crime
• Time and Place of Occurrence
• 46 of violent crimes and 42 of property crimes
  occur at night
• Largest proportions of violent crime occur near
  victims home

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Use of Weapons

• In 21 of all violent crime
• Strangers more likely than nonstrangers to use
  weapons
• 1/3 of weapons are firearms (mostly handguns)
• Victim Self-Protection and Resistance
• 70 of violent crime victims try to stop the
  crime
• Women slightly more likely to take a
  self-protective measure

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Explaining Victimization

• Lifestyle and Routine Activities Theory
• Both developed around 1970s
• Both assume habits, lifestyles, and behavioral
  patterns of potential victims enhance their
  contact with offenders, increasing chances a
  crime will occur

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• Some lifestyles put people more at risk for
  becoming victims
• Spending much time outside the home (bars,
  streets)
• Routine activities theory people engage in
  regular activities that increase chance of
  victimization three components of theory
• Presence of attractive target
• Presence of likely offender
• Absence of guardianship

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• Victim precipitation to some degree victims are
  responsible for their own victimization

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• Deviant Lifestyles and Victimization
• People become victims because they are committing
  crime themselves
• College students more vulnerable

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• Physical Proximity and Victimization
• Living in close proximity to high-crime areas
  increases chances of becoming victim
• Hot spots riskiest locations for crime
  generally poor, disadvantaged neighborhoods
• Bars and taverns help turn some areas into hot
  spots
• Insufficient sense of community

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• Individual Traits
• Low Self-Control and Lack of Social Relationships
• Childhood Problems
• Behavioral disturbances
• Sexual abuse
• Parental conflict
• Mental Disorder

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• Repeat Victimization
• Those involved in offending
• Live near hot spots
• Chronic victims
• NCVS reports this is fairly common occurrence
• Many study focus on adolescents

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• Explaining Demographic Variation and
  Victimization
• Lifestyle theory helps explain why young people
  have higher rates of victimization than older
  people
• they spend more time away from home and more apt
  to engage in deviant lifestyles
• Lifestyle and routine activities theory less
  applicable to violence in the home

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The Victimization of College Students and the
Homeless

• College Students
• Simple assaults, sexual assaults
• Male students have higher victimization rate for
  certain offenses
• College students lower victimization rate than
  non-students in 18-24 group

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Homeless

• Routine activities theory
• Research is lacking in this area
• Suffer from mental and physical health problems
  which may attribute to victimization

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The Costs and Consequences of Victimization

• Economic and Medical Costs and Consequences
• Stats come from various sources NCVS, UCR
• Info is not exact

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Costs Cont..

• Direct costs loss to the victim of any money,
  property stolen/damaged, medical expenses, lost
  wages
• Indirect costs lost productivity, police
  expenses, victim services

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• Only about 10 of property crime victims
  recovered all losses (NCVS, 2002)
• Many crime victims lost time from work
• Violent victimization during adolescence has
  long-term income consequences
• About 1/3 of all NCVS violent crime victims are
  physically injured

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• Psychological Consequences
• Depression
• Loss of self-esteem
• Sexual dysfunction (rape victims)
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

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• Violent crimes have more serious psychological
  consequences than property crimes
• Do these consequences vary by gender, race,
  social class, and age?
• Stranger v. nonstranger, more serious
  psychological consequences for victim?

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• Behavioral Consequences
• Avoidance victim reduces amount of time spent
  with other people
• Vicarious victimization of family member affects
  children who are more likely themselves to engage
  in delinquency because of strain

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Victims in the Criminal Justice System

• Victims and Criminal Case Outcomes
• Rape victims are viewed with skepticism
• Many victims feel shut out or ignored
• Recent increase in victim involvement
• Victim-witness advocate programs
• Victim-impact statements
• Victim Impact Panel (developed by MADD)

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• Prosecutors prefer cases with good victims
  (well-educated, articulate, presentable to the
  jury)
• Victim may influence prosecutors decision to go
  to trial
• Race of victim does seem to matter for homicide
  and rape cases

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Victimization by White-Collar Crime

• Most research focuses on street crime
• NCVS does not collect info on white-collar crime
• More likely to report credit card fraud than
  free-prize scandals

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The End