CMY1502_ STUDY NOTES. SUMMARY.

CMY1502 Complete Exam Summary. Introduction To Criminology: Victims And Reduction Of Crime. Victim concept  Used to refer to someone who has suffered harm or injury  The cause of the damage or injuries is not necessarily criminal in origin and could be the result of natural disaster, pollution, discrimination or neglect  Positivist victimology restrict the concept to the criminal situation and describe the victim as a person who suffers harm and injury as the result of illegitimate activities of another person  The person who commits the crime is the transgressor and the person who suffers directly from the misdemeanour is the victim  United Nation’s definition of a victim: S - The study-notes marketplace Downloaded by: tshilidziagnecia | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace “Victims mean people who, individually or collectively, have suffered harm, including physical or mental injury, emotional suffering, economic loss or substantial impairment of their fundamental rights, though acts or commissions that are in violation of criminal laws operative within a specific country including laws proscribing criminal abuse and power.”  From a radical perspective, the victim is regarded as any person who suffers as a result of the activities of the powerful and privileged members of a capitalist society  Radical victimology focuses on the victims of police brutality, war, the corrective system, state violence and all types of repression  According to Quinney the criminal justice systems create offenders and victims and a definition of the “victim” concept would therefore be artificial.  The term survivor has a more positive connotation and is used when referring to victims who have survived a criminal event  According to Fattah, the use of the terms (victim and offender) reinforces the stereotypes that are associated with them and supports the idea that offenders and victims are completely unalike.  Offenders run a greater risk of becoming the victims of a crime than people who have never been guilty of a crime.  Victims also sometimes expose themselves to crime by their negligent behaviour. Downloaded by: tshilidziagnecia | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace 1.1.3 pROBLEMS CRIME VICTIMS EXPERIENCE 1.1.3.1 Economic loss  Loss of property during burglary, robbery or theft. 1.1.3.2 Suffering  Victims need to make use of emergency services or be admitted to hospital which can be costly.  If victims have no insurance, it can have devastating long-term financial, emotional as well as physical effects on their lives  Even with insurance paralysing injuries cannot be rectified  Victims suffer economically when they have to miss work to testify in court, but economic productivity is also affected  High crime areas are negatively influenced regarding retail sales and a decline in tourism  Suffering can also refer to the treatment victims receive from emergency personnel, the police and the courts  A crime such as murder can traumatically impact friends and disrupt families  The victim’s behaviour can forever be changed and shaped by crime after the incident  Juveniles who are victimised in the home environment, often run away to escape their negative circumstances and become street children Downloaded by: tshilidziagnecia | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace which makes them susceptible to juvenile arrest and involvement in the criminal justice system 1.1.3.3 Fear  Fear resulting from prior crime experiences can make victims reluctant to report crime to the police or to testify in court, and in the long term this hampers the effectiveness of the criminal justice systems  Fear of a repeat attack is mostly experienced by victims of violent crime.  Repeated victimised can take a variety of forms such as burglary in a specific area, child abuse etc.  Victims may also become fearful of other forms of crime they have not yet experiences.  Fear of crime can also have a negative impact on people’s lives because they do not only experience their environment as unsafe but also fear for the safety of family and friends  According to Friedman and Tucker, high-risk behaviour that may increase the likelihood of revictimisation is more likely a symptom of trauma than wilful choice.  Some people lose control over their lives or become desensitised to dangerous situations and fail to take safety precautions  Prior victim experience can lead victims to adopt the attitude that they had their turn and can therefore become less vigilant.  Many victims cannot resist manipulation by others  Battered women are nearly 3 times more likely to be revictimised within 6 months than other types of violence  Janoff Bulman’s explanation for repeated family victims – the victims believe they deserve it, that some character flaw in Downloaded by: tshilidziagnecia | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace them triggered the crime, and they therefore actually expect to be victimised again. 1.1.3.4 Antisocial behaviour  According to Siegel, there is growing evidence that people who are crime victims seem likely to commit crime themselves.  Offenders in prison report significant amounts of posttraumatic stress disorders as a result of prior victimisation such as being molested  The cycle of violence means that the abuse/crime relationship is repeating itself in a family.  Research findings indicate that exposure to weapons and violent behaviour among adults you know and being targets of physical abuse, increase the likelihood of boys and girls engaging in violent behaviour. 1.2.1 Key concepts Downloaded by: tshilidziagnecia | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace  Repeat victimisation – a person, object or place being victimised more than once during a limited period of time  Murder – the unlawful killing of a human being (homicide) with malicious intent  Assault – an attack that may not involve physical contact; includes attempted battery or intentionally frightening the victim by word or deed.  Burglary – breaking into and entering a home or structure for the purpose of committing a crime  Lifestyle – people may become crime victims because their lifestyle increases their exposure to criminal offenders  Victimisation survey – statistical survey that measures the amount, nature and patterns of victimisation in the population  Vulnerable – weak and easily hurt physically or emotionally 1.2.2 Social and demographic characteristics of victims Downloaded by: tshilidziagnecia | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace 1.2.2.1 Age  Statistically younger people face a much greater risk of being victimised than older people  Victim risk diminishes rapidly after the age of 25  Children under the age of 12 are significantly more likely to be assaulted by people they know or are related to.  Teens between 12 and 19 are more likely to be victimised by acquaintances  People over 20 suffer the highest level of attacks by strangers. Titus, Heinzelman and Boyle’s reasons why the youth are more susceptible to crime victimisation:  They are more receptive to promises of great bargains and wonderful opportunities  They lack life experience and are more careless than elderly people  The elderly are less likely to be victims of murder than younger individuals but are at greater risk of being killed during a robbery 1.2.2.2 Gender  Women are at greater risk for crimes of rape and sexual assault.  Males are much more likely than females to become victims of violent crime Downloaded by: tshilidziagnecia | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace  Men commit crime more often than women and more susceptible to crime more often 1.2.2.3 Martial status  Victimisation surveys indicate that divorced and never-married males and females are victimised more often than married people  Widows and widowers reflect the lowest victimisation risk.  Young people too young to be married reflect the highest victim risk  Young individuals with an outgoing lifestyle increase their risk for interactions with high risk peers and increase their exposure to violence.  Widows/ers are less prone to victimisation because they are older, interact with older people, and are more likely to stay home at night and avoid public places. 1.2.2.4 Race and ethnicity  Black ethnic groups experience more personal and household crime than whites  80% of violent crimes victims in SA are black  Hispanics are twice as likely as non-Hispanics to fall prey to robbery and personal theft  Hispanics are also more likely to suffer completed violent crimes than are non-Hispanics  In England, Wales, the USA and SA, blacks run a far greater risk of being victimised than whites 1.2.2.5 Unemployment  More unemployed people are both victims and offenders than employed people  Age and lifestyle is a factor Downloaded by: tshilidziagnecia | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace  Juveniles who are too young to be employed get involved in a high-risk lifestyle which increases their risk of victimisation  Unemployed people are less able to guard their property  Unemployed people have no choice but to live in the same dilapidated areas where everybody is more vulnerable to crime victimisation.  Unemployment rates are more closely related to property crimes such as robbery and burglary than violent crimes such as murder, rape and assault 1.2.2.6 Income  Relationship between income and victimisation does not correspond to that between income and crime  Most offenders come from low income groups  Victims of personal victimisation come from both income groups, but the target group for burglary and theft comprises people with higher income 1.2.2.7 Neighbourhood  People who live in urban areas are more vulnerable to crime victimisation than those who live in non-metropolitan and rural areas  Retirement homes and affluent neighbourhoods show the lowest crime victimisation  The city centre of large cities in SA shows the highest incidence of crime 1.2.2.8 Involvement in crime  Repetition of a crime is likely to increase for a first time offender  The same principle applies to victimisation in the sense that occurrence of a victimisation will increase In a study of murder in Soweto, Snyman found: