Victimization Research Paper

Victimization Research Paper

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Victimization is the outcome of deliberate action taken by a person or institution to exploit, oppress, or harm another, or to destroy or illegally obtain another’s property or possessions. The Latin word victima means “sacrificial animal,” but the term victim has evolved to include a variety of targets, including oneself, another individual, a household, a business, the state, or the environment. The act committed by the offender is usually a violation of a criminal or civil statute but does not necessarily have to violate a law. Harm can include psychological/emotional damage, physical or sexual injury, or economic loss.

Victimology is the scientific study of victims. Victimologists focus on a range of victim-related issues, including estimating the extent of different types of victimization, explaining why victimization occurs to whom or what, the effects and consequences of victimization, and examining victims’ rights within the legal system. Different domains of victimization are also of interest. Victimology is characterized as an interdisciplinary field—academics, practitioners, and advocates worldwide from the fields of criminology, economics, forensic sciences, law, political science, public health, psychology, social work, sociology, nursing, and medicine focus on victims’ plight.

II. Types of Victimization
A. Personal Victimization
Personal victimization occurs when one party experiences some harm that is a result of interacting with an offending party. Personal victimizations can be lethal (e.g., homicide), nonlethal (e.g., assault), or sexual (e.g., forced rape). These victimizations can be violent (e.g., robbery) or nonviolent (e.g., psychological/emotional abuse). Examples of personal victimization also include domestic violence, stalking, kidnapping, child or elder maltreatment/abuse/neglect, torture, human trafficking, and human rights violations.

B. Property Victimization
Property victimization involves loss or destruction of private or public possessions. Property victimization can be committed against a person or against a specific place (e.g., residence), object (e.g., car), or institution (e.g., business). Encompassing offenses include burglary, arson, motor vehicle theft, shoplifting, and vandalism. Embezzlement, money laundering, and a variety of computer/Internet offenses (e.g., software piracy) are also property victimizations.

III. Estimating the Extent of Victimization: National Sources of Victimization Data in the United States
A. Uniform Crime Reports
One of the primary sources of annual victimization data is the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR). The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has compiled the UCR since 1930; it is the longest-running systematic data collection effort on crime in the United States. The UCR presents aggregate crime counts for personal and property offenses based on standardized definitions collected from jurisdictions in all 50 states; Washington, D.C.; and Puerto Rico. Crime counts are reported for the entire country, as well as for regions, states, counties, cities, and towns. Participation in the UCR is voluntary, with more than 17,000 city, county, and state law enforcement agencies participating, representing about 94% of the total U.S. population.

UCR crimes are divided into two categories: Part I and Part II offenses. Part I crimes are referred to as index crimes and include more serious offenses, which are subdivided into violent and property categories. Part I violent offenses are murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Part I property offenses are burglary, larceny–theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. Part II offenses are less serious offenses, including simple assault, drug offenses, and weapon offenses. In 1992, the FBI began reporting information on hate crimes. It also collects the UCR Supplemental Homicide Reports, which are the most reliable, timely data on the extent and nature of homicides.

The usefulness of the UCR as a measure of the “true” amount of victimization is limited, because it overlooks the dark figure of crime; that is, it includes only those crimes reported to and known by law enforcement and reflected in official crime statistics. Agency reporting practices, such as masking problems through manipulating or reporting incomplete crime counts, have also plagued the UCR. Another shortcoming is a lack of information about the victim or the context of the offense.

B. National Crime Victimization Survey
The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is another source of annual victimization data. Its precursor, the National Crime Survey (NCS), was initiated in 1973 by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Justice Statistics with the goal of surveying a representative sample of members of the nation’s households regarding their victimization. The NCS was renamed in 1992 after an intensive methodological redesign (e.g., question wording changes, addition of new crime types). Further changes in methodology (e.g., a new sample and method of interviewing) in 2006 do not allow its estimates and perhaps subsequent NCVS crime victimization estimates to be compared with previous years’ NCVS estimates.

Housing units are selected through a stratified multistage cluster sampling design. For 3 years and half-years, each household member 12 years and older from selected house units is interviewed. Victimization screen questions are asked and followed by a detailed incident report for each number of times the respondent reports the incident happened over the past 6 months.

Personal crimes include completed and attempted/ threatened rape, sexual assault, robbery, simple and aggravated assault, and larceny with and without contract (e.g., pocket picking, purse snatching). Property crimes comprise household burglary, motor vehicle theft, and theft. Because it is a self-report survey, the NCVS does not collect information about homicides.

Among the strengths of the NCVS is the incident-level information that is used to assess the frequency, victim (e.g., sex, race) and incident characteristics (e.g., weapon use, victim–offender relationship, place of occurrence), and consequences of the victimization (e.g., injury, reporting behavior, economic loss). The NCVS collects information about incidents reported and not reported to law enforcement.

Topical supplements are periodically fielded and have included school crime (1989, 1995), workplace victimization (2002), stalking (2006), and identity theft (2008). Like all surveys, memory decay, forward and backward telescoping (i.e., the ability to remember things from the past [backward] or predict the future [forward]), and exaggeration by respondents are possible threats to the validity of the victimization estimates. Frequently victimized individuals, such as the homeless or those institutionalized, are not included in the NCVS.

C. National Incident-Based Reporting System
Another source of national victimization data is the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). NIBRS is an incident-based reporting system of a wide variety of crimes known to law enforcement. The FBI created NIBRS in 1988 with the purpose of enhancing and improving the UCR to meet law enforcement needs in the 21st century. Like the UCR, participation in NIBRS is voluntary on the part of law enforcement agencies and is not based on a representative sample of crime in the United States.

NIBRS collects information about the nature of the offenses in the incident, characteristics of the victim and offender, types and value of property stolen and recovered, and characteristics of persons arrested in connection with a crime incident. NIBRS has a number of improvements over the UCR. Additional crimes, such as drug offenses, fraud, kidnapping, and prostitution offenses, are included in NIBRS. NIBRS also collects data on the context of the incident, such as information on the relationship between the victim and the offender. NIBRS overcomes the UCR’s limitation of recording only the most serious offense with an incident; NIBRS records each offense within an incident. The complicated nature of the incident report, coupled with the strict guidelines and voluntary participation, has resulted in less than ideal levels of participation from law enforcement agencies.

IV. Patterns and Trends in Victimization Rates
Consistent trends over time are evident from the UCR and NCVS. First, both sources have consistently reported that the annual property crime rate is larger than the violent crime rate. For example, the 2006 UCR reports that there were 3,334.5 property victimizations per 100,000 inhabitants of the United States, compared with 473.5 violent victimizations per 100,000. Second, both sources reported that crime rates have been declining over time. Figure 20.1 shows that the NCVS property crime rates have been steadily declining since 1973. Figure 20.2 shows that, since 1994, violent crime rates have declined, reaching the lowest level ever in 2005. The UCR reported that from 1996 to 2005, the violent crime rate decreased 26.3% and the property crime rate fell 22.9%.

A. Personal Victimization
The NCVS has consistently reported that assault is the most frequently occurring personal victimization. Of the two types of assault, victims experience approximately three times more simple assaults than aggravated assaults. To illustrate, the 2005 NCVS estimated 13.5 simple assaults per 1,000 persons age 12 and older compared with 4.3 aggravated assaults per 1,000 persons age 12 and older. Robbery was the next most frequent, with 2.6 per 1,000 persons age 12 and older; rape was next at 0.03 per 1,000 persons age 12 and older. Murder was the least frequently occurring crime—an estimated rate of 5.7 per 100,000 inhabitants as reported by the UCR.

Demographic differences in personal victimization rates have also consistently been reported in the NCVS. In 2005, for example, persons of two or more races had the highest rates of violent victimization (83.6 per 1,000 persons age 12 and older), followed by blacks (27 per 1,000 persons age 12 and older), Hispanics (25 per 1,000 persons age 12 and older), whites (20.1 per 1,000 persons age 12 and older), and all other races (Native Americans, Native Alaskans, etc.; 13.9 per 1,000 persons age 12 and older).

Males had higher violent victimization rates than females. Males were almost 4 times more likely than females to be murdered in 2005. Males’ violent crime rate was 25.5, compared with females’ rate of 17.1 per 1,000 persons age 12 and older.

Victims of violence tend to be young and less likely to experience a violent victimization as they age. The age group most at risk was the 20–24 age group (46.9 per 1,000 persons age 12 and older), followed by the 16–19 group (44.2 per 1,000 persons age 12 and older), the 12–15 group (44 per 1,000 persons age 12 and older), the 25–34 group (23.6 per 1,000 persons age 12 and older), the 35–49 group (17.5 per 1,000 persons age 12 and older), the 50–64 group (11.4 per 1,000 persons age 12 and older) and, finally, the 65-and-older age group (2.4 per 1,000 persons age 12 and older). Interestingly, the relationship between age and victimization is very similar to the relationship between age and crime.

Figure 1. U.S. Violent Crime Rates, 1973–2005

Victimization Figure 1

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (2005). National Crime Victimization Survey. Washington, DC

B. Property Victimization
Theft was the most frequent property victimization to occur in 2005, with 116.2 victimizations per 1,000 households; followed by household burglary, with 29.5 victimizations per 1,000 households; and motor vehicle theft, with 8.4 victimizations per 1,000 households. The overall property victimization rate was 154 per 1,000 households. The NCVS presents victimization information for a number of victim characteristics. As an example, the nature of one’s housing (rent or own) shows that people who rent were victimized more than those who own (192.3 compared with 136.5 victimizations per 1,000 households). The location of the residence is also presented in the NCVS. People living in urban locations experience the most property victimizations (200 per 1,000 households), followed by suburban residents (141.4 per 1,000 households), and then rural residents (125.1 per 1,000 households).

Figure 2. U.S. Property Crime Rates, 1973–2005

Victimization Figure 2

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (2005). National Crime Victimization Survey. Washington, DC

V. Theories of Victimization
Relative to the field of criminology, which originated around the mid-18th century, victimology is a young field with roots in the late 1940s. Since that time, several generations of scholars have advanced its theoretical beginnings and promoted the reemergence of interest in the victim through a wide range of research questions and methods.

A. First Generation: Early Victimologists
First-generation scholarly work in victimology proposed victim typologies based on the offender–victim dyad in a criminal act. Common to the ideas of these early victimologists was that each classified victims in regard to the degree to which they had caused their own victimization. These early theoretical reflections pushed the budding field of victimology in a direction that eventually led to a reformulation of the definition of victimization.

1. Hans Von Hentig
German criminologist HansVon Hentig (1948) developed a typology of victims based on the degree to which victims contributed to causing the criminal act. Examining the psychological, social, and biological dynamics of the situation, he classified victims into 13 categories depending on their propensity or risk for victimization. His typology included the young, female, old, immigrants, depressed, wanton, tormentor, blocked, exempted, or fighting. His notion that victims contributed to their victimization through their actions and behaviors led to the development of the concept of “victim-blaming” and is seen bymany victimadvocates as an attempt to assign equal culpability to the victim.

2. Benjamin Mendelsohn
Benjamin Mendelsohn (1976), an attorney, has often been referred to as the “father” of victimology. Intrigued by the dynamics that take place between victims and offenders, he surveyed both parties during the course of preparing a case for trial. Using these data, he developed a six-category typology of victims based on legal considerations of the degree of a victim’s culpability. This classification ranged from the completely innocent victim (e.g., a child or a completely unconscious person) to the imaginary victim (e.g., persons suffering from mental disorders who believe they are victims).

3. Marvin E. Wolfgang
The first empirical evidence to support the notion that victims are to some degree responsible for their own victimization was presented by Marvin E. Wolfgang (1958), who analyzed Philadelphia’s police homicide records from 1948 through 1952. He reported that 26% of homicides resulted from victim precipitation. Wolfgang identified three factors common to victim-precipitated homicides: (1) The victim and offender had some prior interpersonal relationship, (2) there was a series of escalating disagreements between the parties, and (3) the victim had consumed alcohol.

4. Stephen Schafer
Moving from classifying victims on the basis of propensity or risk and yet still focused on the victim– offender relationship, Stephen Schafer’s (1968) typology classifies victims on the basis of their “functional responsibility.” Victims’ dual role was to function so that they did not provoke others to harm them while also preventing such acts. Schafer’s seven-category functional responsibility typology ranged from no victim responsibility (e.g., unrelated victims, those who are biologically weak), to some degree of victim responsibility (e.g., precipitative victims), to total victim responsibility (e.g., self-victimizing).

5. Menachem Amir
Several years later, Menachem Amir (1971) undertook one of the first studies of rape. On the basis of the details in the Philadelphia police rape records, Amir reported that 19% of all forcible rapes were victim precipitated by such factors as the use of alcohol by both parties; seductive actions by the victim; and the victim’s wearing of revealing clothing, which could tantalize the offender to the point of misreading the victim’s behavior. His work was criticized by the victim’s movement and the feminist movement as blaming the victim.

B. Second Generation: Theories of Victimization
The second generation of theorists shifted attention from the role of the victim toward an emphasis on a situational approach that focuses on explaining and testing how lifestyles and routine activities of everyday life create opportunities for victimization. The emergence of these two theoretical perspectives is one of the most significant developments in the field of victimology.

1. Lifestyle Exposure Theory
Using data from the 1972–1974 NCS, Hindelang, Gottfredson, and Garofalo (1978) noticed that certain groups of people, namely, young people and males, were more likely to be criminally victimized. They theorized that an individual’s demographics (e.g., age, sex) tended to influence one’s lifestyle, which in turn increased his or her exposure to risk of personal and property victimization. For instance, according to Hindelang et al., one’s sex carries with it certain role expectations and societal constraints; it is how the individual reacts to these influences that determines one’s lifestyle. If females spend more time at home, they would be exposed to fewer risky situations involving strangers and hence experience fewer stranger-committed victimizations.

Using the principle of homogamy, Hindelang et al. (1978) also argued that lifestyles that expose people to a large share of would-be offenders increase one’s risk of being victimized. Homogamy would explain why young persons are more likely to be victimized than older people, because the young are more likely to hang out with other youth, who commit a disproportionate amount of violent and property crimes.

2. Routine Activities Theory
Cohen and Felson (1979) formulated routine activities theory to explain changes in aggregate direct-contact predatory (e.g., murder, forcible rape, burglary) crime rates in the United States from 1947 through 1974. Routine activities theory posits that the convergence in time and space of a motivated offender, a suitable target, and the absence of a capable guardian provide an opportunity for crimes to occur. The absence of any one of these conditions is sufficient to drastically reduce the risk of criminal opportunity, if not prevent it altogether.

Routine activities theory does not attempt to explain participation in crime but instead focuses on how opportunities for crimes are related to the nature of patterns of routine social interaction, including one’s work, family, and leisure activities. So, for example, if someone spends time in public places such as bars or hanging out on the streets, he or she increases the likelihood of coming into contact with a motivated offender in the absence of a capable guardian. The supply of motivated offenders is taken as a given. What varies is the supply of suitable targets (e.g., lightweight, easy-to-conceal property, such as cell phones and DVD players, or drunk individuals) and capable guardians (e.g., neighbors, police, burglar alarms).

Victimization Research Paper