Samenvatting - Victimology and the Criminal Justice System (C02A0a) (GESLAAGD!)

Victimology & Criminal
Justice
Victimology: History & perspective
History
 Victimology exists since 1948
 Benjamin Mendelsohn
o Coined the word ‘Victimology’
 Hans Von Henting
o German Professor
o Fled to US from nazi-Germany
o “Criminal & his victim” ~ 1948
o Founder of victimology
 Interested in how a victim becomes a victim
o “Why in history has everyone always focused on the guy with the big stick, the hero,
the activist, to the neglect of poor slob who is at the end of the sick, the victim, the
passivist or maybe the poor slob isn’t all that much of a passivist victim, maybe he
asked for it?”
 Victim precipitation
o Role of victim in event of crime
 Positive: how can victims protect themselves
 Negative: should we blame the victim for his/her conduct
Bv. Amir: “Patterns in forcible rape”
 Emphasizes the role of victims of rape in their victimizatinon
 Victimological risk analysis
o = who runs the most risk of being victimized

Different perspectives on victimology
 Criminological perspectives
o Main issues
 Fear of crime
 Impact of victimization on punitiveness
 Repeat victimization
o Source: crime victim surveys
 Purpose = measure volume (~prevalence & incidence) of crime including the
“dark number”
 Limitations of official stat.
 The dark number
o Not all crimes are reported/detected by police
o Not all reported crimes are duly recorded
o Many crimes rely on victim reports
 Accuracy
o Differences/changes in def.
o Depend on willingness/ability to register
o Can be manipulated by police

,  Difficulties for cross-country comparison & understanding trends
 Lack of variables for further study
o Starting point:
 How much crime is there & what role do victims play in crime?
 Largely relatively routine forms of crime
 Social psychological perspectives
o Classical experiments
 Milgram obedience study
 Zimbaro’s Stanford Prison experiment
 Sherif’s Robbers Cave experiment
 Darley’s Bystander Effect
o Relevant issues
 The belief in a just world ~ Lerner & Simmons
 The role of procedures In getting just outcomes ~ Thibaut & Walker
 The magnitude gap between offenders & victims ~ Baumeister
 Moralization Gap
o Differences in moral tone
 Perpetrator sees justifications
 Victims see actions as wholly unjustified
o Differences in impact
 Perpetrator minimizes magnitude, sees impact as
reparable
 Victim emphasizes severity & irreparable nature of
crime
o Differences in role of context
 Perpetrator attributes event to context-factors
 Victim attributes event to perpetrator
o Differences in time frame
 Perpetrator sees pre-cursors & aftermath limited in
time-frame
 Victims’ narrative extends through time
 Differences in narratives form part of the explanation for
cycles of revenge
 Even when retaliation is exactly balanced, its story
will not be
 Dehumanization ~ Haslam
 Competitive victimhood ~ Noor
o Starting point
 Processes of victimization = largely determined by social forces & roles
 Applies to reactions of victimization
 Goal = capture universal causal determinants of processes of perpetration &
victimization
 Justice perspectives
o Adversarial vs. inquisitorial systems
 Adversarial system
 No role for civil parties in criminal trials
o No role for victims, further reduced by plea bargaining
practices

,  Emphasis on hearing in court as the place for presenting evidence
o Testifying in court as a source of “secondary” victimization
  victim’s rights emerged
o Position of victims was the weakest here
o Need to maintain legitimacy of criminal justice process, &
maintain victims’ cooperation with criminal processes
 Inquisitorial system
 Civil/adhered parties/auxiliary prosecutors
o Victims as civil parties
 Pre-trail investigation by magistrate
o Testifying in pre-trail investigation less burdensome than in
court
o Emerging of victim’s rights (~adversarial systems)
 1950-70
 Initially activity in Anglo-Saxon countries
o Important distinction between priority for services to victims
& rights for victims
 Victim rights in US
 Victim support in UK
o Victim compensation in New Zealand
 1970’s
 International symposia on victimology since 1973
 World society of victimology ( ~1979)
 UN declaration of basic principles of justice for victims of crime &
abuse of power (~1985)
 EU framework decision (~2001)
 EU victims directive (~2012)
 Main victims’ rights
 To respect & recognition at all stages of criminal proceedings
 To receive info about progress of case
 To provide info to officials responsible for decisions relating to
offender
 To have legal advice available
 To protection, for victims’ privacy & physical safety
 To compensation, from offender & State
 To receive victim support
 To mediation
o Key issues
 Role of compensation & restitution
 Secondary victimization
 Burden of interacting with legal system
 Procedural justice
 Importance of process itself
 Victims perspectives on outcome
 Victims & role of emotions in criminal justice
 Victims perspectives & connection to revenge & retribution
 Development of victims rights
 International contexts

,  Form, function & purpose of victim participation
o Starting point:
 Role of victims in & around criminal justice
 Clinical psychological perspectives
o Origins of PTSD (~Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
 Returning soldiers
 Not extreme psychological reaction to Vietnam, but delayed-onset
o Extreme forms of survivor guilt
o Feeling scapegoated/betrayed by country
o Rage at society
o Emotional numbing
o Disconnected from other people
o Inability to love
 Lack of support for veterans
 Part of actual scapegoating
o Psychological problems were pre-existing, not a consequence
of Vietnam
o Part of “malingering” attempt to gain benefits
 Psychiatrists
 Attempt to develop “objective” category  veterans eligible for right
to support & benefits = Post-Vietnam Syndrome
o Not accepted by APA for inclusion in DSM
 Move from war to other experiences
 Connection to other events
Bv. child abuse, sexual abuse, Holocaust survivors
o Medical diagnosis seen as part of recognition of their
enduring suffering
 Included/defined symptoms in a manner that (seemed to) fit
different situations
 post-traumatic stress disorder in DSM-III
o Prevalence of PTSD
o Mechanisms of PTSD
o Development of techniques to combat PTSD
o Post-traumatic growth
o PTSD & justice process
o Critical issues
 PTSD & social context
 PTSD & cultural context
 PTSD & therapy culture
o Starting point
 Impact of victimization (not only by crime & moral transgression) on victims’
mental health