Forensic Victimology 2nd Edition

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Forensic Victimology 2nd Edition

• Chapter Six Victim Lifestyle Exposure

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Victim Lifestyle Exposure

• Victim exposure is the amount of contact or
  vulnerability to harmful elements experienced by
  the victim.
• Overall victim exposure is determined by
  examining and considering the separate constructs
  of lifestyle exposure and situational exposure.
• This chapter focuses on lifestyle exposure, which
  is related to the frequency of potentially
  harmful elements experienced by the victim and
  resulting from the victims usual environment and
  personal traits, as well as past choices.

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Lifestyle Exposure - A Theoretical Framework

• Lifestyle factors can influence the overall
  possibility of individual harm in three ways
• By increasing the victims proximity to, and
  interactions with, offenders or those predisposed
  towards criminality
• By fomenting conditions that create a perceived
  conflict with an offender and
• By enhancing an offenders perception of victim
  vulnerability.

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Lifestyle Exposure - A Theoretical Framework

• The following criminology theories have proven to
  be most useful for identifying and understanding
  when a victims lifestyle facilitates
  victimization
• Victim precipitation
• Lifestyle theory and
• Routine activity theory.

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Lifestyle Exposure - A Theoretical Framework

• Victim Precipitation
• Victim precipitation refers to the extent to
  which a victim plays a role, either knowingly or
  unknowingly, in his or her own victimization.
  Precipitation can be passive or active.
• Passive precipitation occurs when a victim
  exhibits some personal characteristics that
  unknowingly threatens or encourages the offender.
  
• Active precipitation refers to those situations
  in which the victim directly provokes the
  offender.

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Lifestyle Exposure - A Theoretical Framework

• Lifestyle Theory
• Lifestyle theory argues that some people are more
  prone to victimization because their behaviors,
  habits, or customs expose them to a greater
  frequency of contact with crime and criminals.
• This is consistent with the principle of
  homogamy, which suggests that individuals are
  more exposed to the possibility of victimization
  if they frequently associate with, or come into
  contact with, members of demographic groups
  containing a disproportionate amount of
  criminals.

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Lifestyle Exposure - A Theoretical Framework

• Routine Activity Theory
• The convergence in time and space of three
  elements (motivated offenders, suitable targets,
  and the absence of a capable guardians) appears
  useful for understanding crime rate trends.
• The lack of any of these elements if sufficient
  to prevent the occurrence of successful
  direct-contact predatory crime.

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Lifestyle Exposure - A Theoretical Framework

• A likely offender is classified as one that is
  sufficiently motivated to offend.
• This motivation may come from a variety of
  factors that can influence victim selection the
  process by which an offender chooses or targets a
  victim. Victim selection can be classified as
• Targeted A targeted victim is the primary
  objective of the offense resulting directly from
  the offenders motive for committing the crime.
• Opportunistic An opportunistic victim is
  ancillary to the offense. In such cases, the
  offender is motivated by a desire to commit the
  offender and the victim is irrelevant.

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Notable Lifestyle Factors

• There are many lifestyle factors that are
  commonly known to increase victim exposure and
  vulnerability to harm. The following are examples
  of notable lifestyle factors
• Attorneys
• Law enforcement
• Prostitutes
• Drug dealers
• Alcoholism and drug addiction

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Notable Lifestyle Factors

• A number of general traits can also influence a
  victims lifestyle exposure.
• These include aggressiveness, impulsivity,
  self-destructive behavior, passivity, low
  self-esteem, and aberrant sexual behavior.

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Assessing Lifestyle Exposure

• Victim lifestyle exposure is classified for the
  purpose of understanding the victims lifestyle
  and conditions, in order that exposure may be
  fully understood and described to others.
• This chapter categorizes victim lifestyle
  exposure into extreme-exposure victims,
  high-exposure victims, medium-exposure victims,
  and low-exposure victims.
• Because lifestyle exposure refers to the
  frequency of exposure, these categories are
  defined by timeframes.

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Assessing Lifestyle Exposure

• High-exposure victims are those who are exposed
  to the possibility of suffering harm or loss more
  often than not (e.g., 4-6 days a week).
• Medium-exposure victims are those who are exposed
  to the possibility of suffering harm or loss less
  often than not (e.g., 1-3 days a week).
• Low-exposure victims are those who are rarely
  exposed to the possibility of suffering harm or
  loss (e.g., less than one a week).