Victimology

1. Victimology and Anthropology and Race

2. Victimology • Until recently, victims were not studied • Passive recipients of criminal’s greed, anger, etc., “wrong place at the wrong time” • Victimology the study of victims • $8 billion per year in stolen property • Victims not treated well by CJS • Loss of wages, physical & psychological complications

3. Social ecology of victimization • When: 6 p.m.. to 6 am • Personal larceny during day • More serious at night • Where: Open, public area, only rape and simple assault in homes • Central city • Western urban highest, Northeast rural lowest

4. Victimization • NCS indicates that 25% of U.S. households contain at least one individual who was victimized in some way during the past year • 99% will experience personal theft, 87% will be a theft victim 3 or more times

5. Victim characteristics • Men are twice as likely as women to be victims of robbery and assault. • The violent victimization rate for females has been stable, but there has been a 20% increase for males in last 15 years • Victim risk diminishes rapidly after age 25. Contrary to belief, grandparents are safer than their grandchildren.

6. Characteristics (continued) • The poor are more likely to be victims of violent crime, while the middle class are more likely to be victims of property crime • Unmarried/never married more likely to be victims than married/widows • African Americans are victimized at highest rates • Young, black, urban, poor, male

7. Characteristics (continued) • 60% of violent crimes committed by a stranger. However, females usually know their assailants (625,000 victims of intimate violence) • Crime tends to be intraracial • 54% of offenders report being under the influence of alcohol and/or other drugs when they committed the offense resulting in incarceration.

8. Violence in the home • About 1 1/2 million children are physically abused. Average number of assaults per year for these children: 10.5, rarely a one-time act • 16% couples report incident of spouse abuse • 1% sexually abused

9. Theories of victimization • Victim precipitation theory: There are victims who may have actually initiated the confrontation that led to their injury/death • Life-style theory: life-style increases exposure to criminal offenses • Increased risk: staying single, associating with young men, urban, going to public places late at night

10. Theories of victimization (cont) • Reduced risk: staying home at night, rural, staying out of public places, earning more money, getting married • Thus, probabilities of crime depends on the activities of the victim. Crime occurs when victims place themselves in jeopardy

11. Theories (cont.) • Routine activities theory • The volume and distribution of predatory crimes depends on • availability of suitable targets • absence of capable guardians • presence of motivated offenders

12. Theories (cont) • Increase in crime since 1960 • less caretakers, women entering workforce • decline of the traditional neighborhood, flight to the suburbs • volume of easily transportable wealth has increased

13. Theories cont. • Equivalent group hypothesis: victims and criminals share similar characteristics because they are not really separate groups • Crime victims as a group report a high amount of criminal activity • Proximity hypothesis: crime less a function of life-style, but rather is based on close proximity.

14. Theories (cont) • Victims and criminals live in the same areas • Probability of being victimized is more a function of where one lives than one’s lifestyle • High crime: poor, densely populated, highly transient neighborhoods

15. Victim services • Studies of the victim have led to new programs • Victim compensation programs • Court services • Public education • Crisis intervention (such as rape)

16. Protecting victims • Victim’s rights: debate about what they should be. Megan’s law, allowing victims to speak at hearings, etc. • Self-protection: target hardening, block watch, neighborhood patrols • Gun ownership higher among crime victims: debate

17. Race and Crime • One in every four African American males between the ages of 20 and 29 are under some form of correctional supervision in the U.S. This was not always the case: The proportion has doubled since W.W.II • 1/8 of the population, but 1/2 of those arrested for violent crimes, 1/3 for property crimes, 1/2 of those in prison. • Also victimized at higher rates

18. Race and crime: explanations • Economic deprivation and conflict theory • Racial isolation, barriers to employment, education, etc. • Relative deprivation: growing disparity between poor and middle class (Middle class African Americans have rapidly increased income and educational levels, those in inner cities are worse off

19. Explanations (cont) • Biological factors • Genetic factors among differing ethnic groups seems an unlikely explanation (for example, it could not account for the sudden increase) • Poor prenatal care and poor nutrition among the poor result in being at risk for LD, neurological problems, ADHD, LBW, etc.

20. Explanations • In general, children in poor female based households are more at risk, because of the greater difficulties in providing resources and supervision.. • 1/2 of African American children live below the poverty line • Moynihan report

21. Explanations • Legacy of slavery? (why the rise 100 years later?) • Expression of anger? Note that crime tends to be intraracial. • Ecological research: Migration from rural South in the 1920s and 1930s into transitional area. A rise in crime would be predicted. It would be expected to last longer because of segregation.