1 CMY3705 – Victimology - Summary
Unit 1 – Brief History
Historically the victim of crime was marginalized/ignored by the criminal justice system. The
importance of victims in the study of crime was disregarded.
The field of Victimology emerged in the 1940s when Von Hentig and Mendelsohn, the so called
"fathers of Victimology," studied crime victims. They theorised that the victim's behaviour and
attitude caused or contributed to the crime being committed.
DEFINITION Victim (UN Declaration): “persons who, individually or collectively, have suffered harm,
including physical or mental injury, emotional suffering, economic loss or substantial impairment of
their fundamental rights, through acts or omissions that are in violation of criminal laws, including
those proscribing criminal abuse of power...”
DEFINITION "Crime victim": any person, group, or entity who has suffered injury or loss due to
illegal activity. The harm can be physical, psychological, or economic.
DEFINITION Legal definition of "victim": a person who has suffered direct, or threatened, physical,
emotional or pecuniary harm as a result of the commission of a crime; or in the case of a victim
being an institutional entity, any of the same harms by an individual or authorized representative of
another entity.
DEFINITION "Secondary crime victims": These individuals experience the harm second hand -
include intimate partners or significant others of victims.
DEFINITION "Tertiary crime victims": experience the harm vicariously, such as through media
accounts or from watching television.
Unit 2 – Victim Support and Empowerment
DEFINITION Secondary victimization: the ill-informed, insensitive, blaming treatment of victims by
officials who work for the criminal justice system. Can include victimisation by the victim’s family,
friends or community.
Secondary victimisation starts when the victim first reports the crime to the police. Victims,
especially women and children who are victims of crime, and especially in the event of sexual assault
or rape, have to face the police’s disbelief that the crime occurred. The insensitive manner in which
they are treated begins the process of secondary victimisation. Discouraging or preventing the
woman from laying charges further perpetuates the victim’s negativity and increases her sense of
vulnerability.
Family and friends may discourage the victim from reporting the crime. This resistance from both
family and the community or criminal justice officials may exacerbate the trauma the victim is
experiencing, leaving this individual feeling alone and isolated. The negativity can follow the victim
into the court process. Few victims understand the dynamics of the court process, criminal
procedures followed and evidentiary law.
Victimisation takes place at various levels during the court process:
• a failure to provide private waiting or report-taking facilities;
• not informing victims of court procedures and evidence (most victims have no idea how a
criminal case is tried);
• failing to explain why certain questions are being asked or procedures followed;
,2 CMY3705 – Victimology - Summary
• not updating victims on the progress of the investigation or trial.
This adds to the victim’s distress and uncertainty and helps to perpetuate the trauma experienced.
Long waiting periods for victims before they are examined and treated, as well as the time which
often lapses between reporting an incident and appearing in court contributes to and further
exacerbates the victim’s stress.
The victims’ rights may be infringed upon by the defense. I.e. a failure (on the part of the prosecutor)
to object to inappropriate cross-questioning in court of the victim by the defense attorney may be
extremely traumatic to the victim and may even put the victim in the position that she or he looks
guilty.
DEFINITION Victim empowerment: the process through which individuals who have suffered
conflict and violence are helped to overcome their grief and resentment, thus enabling them to
become more positive, proactive and self-motivated members of society.
DEFINITION Victim empowerment: those strategies and public policies which provide communities
with the skills and self-confidence, support and tools necessary to become more effective advocates
of the rights and needs of victims in the light of institutionalised and historic discrimination (bo th in
the government and private sector).
Victim Support models
Two basic models and a third that is a blend of the first two:
1. Care model: services can be delivered as a specific form of welfare or charity
2. Criminal justice model: victim services can be part of the administration of criminal justice
3. Prevention model: sees victim policies as an integral part of crime prevention
The care model
Those which involve or include state compensation schemes – especially those which apply generous
standards in determining awards for victims of crime.
In most cases, existing schemes fall short of being a fully satisfactory welfare provision for crime
victims. Only some victims are eligible, and the actual delivery tends to be time-consuming and
burdensome for the claimants. Victims who are poor will, of course, welcome any money received.
2nd category of care-oriented services is rape crisis centres, shelter homes for victims of spouse
abuse and, finally, general victim support schemes.
The criminal justice model
The criminal justice model incorporates victims of crime and they are provided for and included
within the criminal justice process. They are taken into consideration by the police, are referred to
support agencies, are given advice on preventive measures. Rights include:
• the right to be notified of the outcome of the investigation or of the ensuing criminal
proceedings
• the right to inform the court of the impact of the victimisation in the form of a Victim Impact
Statement
• the right to receive restitution from the offender.
The prevention model
,3 CMY3705 – Victimology - Summary
Reasons why a better deal for crime victims is important in the fight against crime:
• Most crimes are brought to the attention of the police by victims or their relatives.
• The chance to arrest the offender and obtain a conviction largely depends on the
information supplied by the victim. If victims are doubtful whether reporting the case to the
police will do them any good, police effectiveness is undermined. For criminal investigations
to be functional, the victim’s cooperation is essential. Satisfied victims ought to be used as a
performance measure in criminal investigation departments.
• Criminality can be prevented by doing something about the economic hardship of groups at
risk and limiting their chances of becoming offenders.
• Victim-oriented prevention and offender-oriented prevention:
o Offender-oriented prevention: Offenders should be empowered to stay crime free
after their release from prison.
o Victim oriented prevention: Since the level of crime is partly determined by the
availability of suitable targets, potential and actual victims can also make an
important contribution to the prevention of crime by improving their own self-
protection measures.
South African Perspective
The high level of crime in S.A has structural causes that need to be addressed by a comprehensive
crime policy. The various risk factors that drives the high level of crime are:
• the presence of economically deprived youngsters (as in many other developing nations),
• the availability of suitable targets (as in affluent nations)
Problems:
• Crime victims who report their victimisation to the police are dissatisfied with their
treatment.
• Crime victims would like to receive some sort of specialised help, but this help is not
forthcoming.
Solutions:
• The care ideology: Many of the poorer victims of violence would greatly benefit from a state
compensation scheme.
• The criminal justice ideology: Develop a nationwide network of support agencies for all
victims, possibly with the involvement of volunteers.
- A purely care-oriented approach will not suffice as the victim’s demand that justice be done
needs to be met and this can only be achieved by the criminal justice system itself.
- Victim policies not only contribute to the making of a more caring and just society; such
policies can also help to prevent and control crime. Therefore:
• The prevention ideology: Potential and actual crime victims can support the police by placing
the responsibility on community members to improve their own self-protection measures.
Repeat victims can also help the police by installing burglar alarms, which may make it easier
for the police to arrest perpetrators.
By treating victims more fairly, the criminal justice system can maintain or restore the victim’s
respect for the law and thus prevent a downward spiral of violence and resentment. Helping crime
, 4 CMY3705 – Victimology - Summary
victims is a task for welfare agencies and volunteers, in close cooperation with the police, the
prosecutors and the courts. A victim policy clearly calls for a multi-agency approach.
In South Africa, unacceptably high levels of crime and violence continue to threaten the gains of
transformation. The NCPS (National Crime Prevention Strategy) is one of the six pillars of the
National Growth and Development Strategy of the Reconstruction and Development Programme
(RDP). Cabinet approved the NCPS in 1996. The objective of the NCPS was to continue to work at
reducing crime levels in South African society. This programme aimed to make integrated criminal
justice victim-friendly and to minimise the negative effects of crime and violence on crime victims.
The failure of effective victim empowerment in the criminal justice system may encourage “private
justice” (e.g. vigilantism) and lead to a lack of public confidence in the system.
One of the key outputs of the Victim Empowerment Programme within the NCPS was to develop a
comprehensive model that incorporates integrated service delivery to victims of crime and violence
that is in line with national standards. This approach was based on the premise that crime is a social
issue and requires multi-agency interventions.
This model aims to move towards maximising available resources while minimising the duplication of
efforts. It sustains state-managed delivery of caring, supportive and accessible services. A restorative
justice system seeks to encourage full participation, particularly of young offenders, where
treatment is aimed at enabling minor offenders to avoid a life of crime. Crime victimisation may
breed popular contempt for human rights, and the negative impact of this leads to widespread
insecurity.
Many South Africans observe the Bill of Rights as providing greater protection to criminals. It was
thus recommended that government adopt a crime prevention approach that places the rights and
needs of victims at the centre of the strategy.
Unit 3: Domestic Violence
DEFINITION Domestic violence: the physical, sexual, and/or psychological abuse that occurs
between two adults in an intimate relationship regardless of marital status or sexual orientation.
DEFINITION Domestic violence: a pattern of assaultive and coercive behaviour which includes
physical, sexual and psychological attacks as well as the economic coercion that adults exercise
against their partners.
DEFINITION Violence: “an act carried out with the intention or perceived intention of causing
physical pain or injury to another person”.
DEFINITION Violence: the unlawful and negative exercise of physical force or the threat of such
force, which includes attitudes and actions leading to emotional and/or spiritual injury.
DEFINITION Normal violence consists of slaps, pushes, shoves and spankings that frequently are
considered a normal or acceptable part of raising children or interacting with a spouse. These are
the acts many people object to calling “violence”, for example, the use hidings or spankings to
discipline a child.
DEFINITION Abusive violence: a more dangerous act of violence than what is considered “normal”
violence. This type of violence has the potential for seriously injuring the victim. This definition
includes acts such as punches, kicks, bites, chokings, beatings, shootings, stabbings, or attempted
shootings or stabbings.
Unit 1 – Brief History
Historically the victim of crime was marginalized/ignored by the criminal justice system. The
importance of victims in the study of crime was disregarded.
The field of Victimology emerged in the 1940s when Von Hentig and Mendelsohn, the so called
"fathers of Victimology," studied crime victims. They theorised that the victim's behaviour and
attitude caused or contributed to the crime being committed.
DEFINITION Victim (UN Declaration): “persons who, individually or collectively, have suffered harm,
including physical or mental injury, emotional suffering, economic loss or substantial impairment of
their fundamental rights, through acts or omissions that are in violation of criminal laws, including
those proscribing criminal abuse of power...”
DEFINITION "Crime victim": any person, group, or entity who has suffered injury or loss due to
illegal activity. The harm can be physical, psychological, or economic.
DEFINITION Legal definition of "victim": a person who has suffered direct, or threatened, physical,
emotional or pecuniary harm as a result of the commission of a crime; or in the case of a victim
being an institutional entity, any of the same harms by an individual or authorized representative of
another entity.
DEFINITION "Secondary crime victims": These individuals experience the harm second hand -
include intimate partners or significant others of victims.
DEFINITION "Tertiary crime victims": experience the harm vicariously, such as through media
accounts or from watching television.
Unit 2 – Victim Support and Empowerment
DEFINITION Secondary victimization: the ill-informed, insensitive, blaming treatment of victims by
officials who work for the criminal justice system. Can include victimisation by the victim’s family,
friends or community.
Secondary victimisation starts when the victim first reports the crime to the police. Victims,
especially women and children who are victims of crime, and especially in the event of sexual assault
or rape, have to face the police’s disbelief that the crime occurred. The insensitive manner in which
they are treated begins the process of secondary victimisation. Discouraging or preventing the
woman from laying charges further perpetuates the victim’s negativity and increases her sense of
vulnerability.
Family and friends may discourage the victim from reporting the crime. This resistance from both
family and the community or criminal justice officials may exacerbate the trauma the victim is
experiencing, leaving this individual feeling alone and isolated. The negativity can follow the victim
into the court process. Few victims understand the dynamics of the court process, criminal
procedures followed and evidentiary law.
Victimisation takes place at various levels during the court process:
• a failure to provide private waiting or report-taking facilities;
• not informing victims of court procedures and evidence (most victims have no idea how a
criminal case is tried);
• failing to explain why certain questions are being asked or procedures followed;
,2 CMY3705 – Victimology - Summary
• not updating victims on the progress of the investigation or trial.
This adds to the victim’s distress and uncertainty and helps to perpetuate the trauma experienced.
Long waiting periods for victims before they are examined and treated, as well as the time which
often lapses between reporting an incident and appearing in court contributes to and further
exacerbates the victim’s stress.
The victims’ rights may be infringed upon by the defense. I.e. a failure (on the part of the prosecutor)
to object to inappropriate cross-questioning in court of the victim by the defense attorney may be
extremely traumatic to the victim and may even put the victim in the position that she or he looks
guilty.
DEFINITION Victim empowerment: the process through which individuals who have suffered
conflict and violence are helped to overcome their grief and resentment, thus enabling them to
become more positive, proactive and self-motivated members of society.
DEFINITION Victim empowerment: those strategies and public policies which provide communities
with the skills and self-confidence, support and tools necessary to become more effective advocates
of the rights and needs of victims in the light of institutionalised and historic discrimination (bo th in
the government and private sector).
Victim Support models
Two basic models and a third that is a blend of the first two:
1. Care model: services can be delivered as a specific form of welfare or charity
2. Criminal justice model: victim services can be part of the administration of criminal justice
3. Prevention model: sees victim policies as an integral part of crime prevention
The care model
Those which involve or include state compensation schemes – especially those which apply generous
standards in determining awards for victims of crime.
In most cases, existing schemes fall short of being a fully satisfactory welfare provision for crime
victims. Only some victims are eligible, and the actual delivery tends to be time-consuming and
burdensome for the claimants. Victims who are poor will, of course, welcome any money received.
2nd category of care-oriented services is rape crisis centres, shelter homes for victims of spouse
abuse and, finally, general victim support schemes.
The criminal justice model
The criminal justice model incorporates victims of crime and they are provided for and included
within the criminal justice process. They are taken into consideration by the police, are referred to
support agencies, are given advice on preventive measures. Rights include:
• the right to be notified of the outcome of the investigation or of the ensuing criminal
proceedings
• the right to inform the court of the impact of the victimisation in the form of a Victim Impact
Statement
• the right to receive restitution from the offender.
The prevention model
,3 CMY3705 – Victimology - Summary
Reasons why a better deal for crime victims is important in the fight against crime:
• Most crimes are brought to the attention of the police by victims or their relatives.
• The chance to arrest the offender and obtain a conviction largely depends on the
information supplied by the victim. If victims are doubtful whether reporting the case to the
police will do them any good, police effectiveness is undermined. For criminal investigations
to be functional, the victim’s cooperation is essential. Satisfied victims ought to be used as a
performance measure in criminal investigation departments.
• Criminality can be prevented by doing something about the economic hardship of groups at
risk and limiting their chances of becoming offenders.
• Victim-oriented prevention and offender-oriented prevention:
o Offender-oriented prevention: Offenders should be empowered to stay crime free
after their release from prison.
o Victim oriented prevention: Since the level of crime is partly determined by the
availability of suitable targets, potential and actual victims can also make an
important contribution to the prevention of crime by improving their own self-
protection measures.
South African Perspective
The high level of crime in S.A has structural causes that need to be addressed by a comprehensive
crime policy. The various risk factors that drives the high level of crime are:
• the presence of economically deprived youngsters (as in many other developing nations),
• the availability of suitable targets (as in affluent nations)
Problems:
• Crime victims who report their victimisation to the police are dissatisfied with their
treatment.
• Crime victims would like to receive some sort of specialised help, but this help is not
forthcoming.
Solutions:
• The care ideology: Many of the poorer victims of violence would greatly benefit from a state
compensation scheme.
• The criminal justice ideology: Develop a nationwide network of support agencies for all
victims, possibly with the involvement of volunteers.
- A purely care-oriented approach will not suffice as the victim’s demand that justice be done
needs to be met and this can only be achieved by the criminal justice system itself.
- Victim policies not only contribute to the making of a more caring and just society; such
policies can also help to prevent and control crime. Therefore:
• The prevention ideology: Potential and actual crime victims can support the police by placing
the responsibility on community members to improve their own self-protection measures.
Repeat victims can also help the police by installing burglar alarms, which may make it easier
for the police to arrest perpetrators.
By treating victims more fairly, the criminal justice system can maintain or restore the victim’s
respect for the law and thus prevent a downward spiral of violence and resentment. Helping crime
, 4 CMY3705 – Victimology - Summary
victims is a task for welfare agencies and volunteers, in close cooperation with the police, the
prosecutors and the courts. A victim policy clearly calls for a multi-agency approach.
In South Africa, unacceptably high levels of crime and violence continue to threaten the gains of
transformation. The NCPS (National Crime Prevention Strategy) is one of the six pillars of the
National Growth and Development Strategy of the Reconstruction and Development Programme
(RDP). Cabinet approved the NCPS in 1996. The objective of the NCPS was to continue to work at
reducing crime levels in South African society. This programme aimed to make integrated criminal
justice victim-friendly and to minimise the negative effects of crime and violence on crime victims.
The failure of effective victim empowerment in the criminal justice system may encourage “private
justice” (e.g. vigilantism) and lead to a lack of public confidence in the system.
One of the key outputs of the Victim Empowerment Programme within the NCPS was to develop a
comprehensive model that incorporates integrated service delivery to victims of crime and violence
that is in line with national standards. This approach was based on the premise that crime is a social
issue and requires multi-agency interventions.
This model aims to move towards maximising available resources while minimising the duplication of
efforts. It sustains state-managed delivery of caring, supportive and accessible services. A restorative
justice system seeks to encourage full participation, particularly of young offenders, where
treatment is aimed at enabling minor offenders to avoid a life of crime. Crime victimisation may
breed popular contempt for human rights, and the negative impact of this leads to widespread
insecurity.
Many South Africans observe the Bill of Rights as providing greater protection to criminals. It was
thus recommended that government adopt a crime prevention approach that places the rights and
needs of victims at the centre of the strategy.
Unit 3: Domestic Violence
DEFINITION Domestic violence: the physical, sexual, and/or psychological abuse that occurs
between two adults in an intimate relationship regardless of marital status or sexual orientation.
DEFINITION Domestic violence: a pattern of assaultive and coercive behaviour which includes
physical, sexual and psychological attacks as well as the economic coercion that adults exercise
against their partners.
DEFINITION Violence: “an act carried out with the intention or perceived intention of causing
physical pain or injury to another person”.
DEFINITION Violence: the unlawful and negative exercise of physical force or the threat of such
force, which includes attitudes and actions leading to emotional and/or spiritual injury.
DEFINITION Normal violence consists of slaps, pushes, shoves and spankings that frequently are
considered a normal or acceptable part of raising children or interacting with a spouse. These are
the acts many people object to calling “violence”, for example, the use hidings or spankings to
discipline a child.
DEFINITION Abusive violence: a more dangerous act of violence than what is considered “normal”
violence. This type of violence has the potential for seriously injuring the victim. This definition
includes acts such as punches, kicks, bites, chokings, beatings, shootings, stabbings, or attempted
shootings or stabbings.
