VICTIMOLOGY: ORIGIN AND HISTORY, OBJECT OF STUDY - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The victimology is the study of victimization; that is, the effects that occur on a person when they are the victim of any type of attack or crime. These effects can be physical or psychological in nature, and will vary from one individual to another. Victimology also seeks to understand factors related to the violation of human rights.

For example, the relationship between the victim and the aggressor is the object of study, or the role that the legal and justice system should play in the attacks. It also involves the study of the influence of different groups and social institutions on crimes. This discipline is essential to be able to intervene adequately in cases where it is necessary.

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In addition, it can help us understand the best way to minimize the aftermath in cases where problems occur that violate someone's human rights.

Origin and history

Victimology is considered as a branch of criminology, so its history has always been closely linked to that of this discipline. It is the science that studies the relationship between the victim and the aggressor by examining the causes of the problem and the nature of the consequences for the victim.

In this section we will study how victimology became a separate field of study from criminology. We will also see how it has developed throughout its decades of history, until it reaches the discipline we know today.

Appearance of victimology

The study of the relationship between victims and offenders first emerged in the 1940s and 1950s. During this time, famous criminologists, such as Benjamin Mendelsohn and Hans von Hentig, examined the interactions between people involved in crime.

His main objective was to better understand the reciprocal influence between the two, as well as the reasons why people can end up in one of these two roles.

One of the questions raised was whether individuals who had been physically or psychologically harmed could also be held responsible for some incidents.

These criminologists argued that, on some occasions, victims could share part of the blame with the aggressors. Several of his examples were highly controversial for the time, but they served to cause the judicial system to rethink its approach to some extent.

His goal was not to put all the blame on the victims; on the contrary, these criminologists wanted to study what behaviors could more easily lead to the appearance of criminal or harmful acts. In this way, they hoped to avoid them to reduce the incidence of them.

Second stage

Although this discipline initially focused on studying the responsibility of victims, from the 70's it took a 180º turn and began to investigate ways to prevent the victimization of people.

They also began to study how to improve their experience in the legal system, as well as ways to make their psychological recovery faster.

Thus, from this moment on, victimology began to draw from other disciplines such as psychology, sociology, social work, law, political science or economics.

The work of all these professionals enriches that of the victimologists: the latter study what kind of help each victim needs to promote their speedy recovery, both mentally, physically and financially.

In this second stage, the crimes that have received the most attention from this discipline are murder, rape, child abuse, intimate partner violence and kidnapping.

However, other incidents involving especially disadvantaged people, such as minorities or people with some type of disability, have also been studied.

Object of study

The topics studied by victimology have varied over time, as the discipline developed. Next we will see which have been the most important from its creation to the present moment.

Responsibility of the victims

As mentioned above, one of the first issues this science focused on was what particular actions by victims can lead to assault.

Thus, the idea was to make it easier to prevent similar situations in the future, to avoid all the human and economic costs that these incidents entail.

Relationship between aggressor and victim

Another of the original focuses of victimology was in which context the attacks occurred and what was the relationship between the two parties involved. The aggressor, was he a complete stranger? Or, on the contrary, was it someone close like a friend or family member?

It was also about identifying the most common situations in which some types of aggression occurred. Again, the intention was to collect data that would allow avoiding such situations in the future.

Risk of victimization

In more modern times, victimology has begun to focus on studying which social groups are more prone to suffer any type of aggression. For example, it is about dividing the population according to their sex, age, social class, race or even area of ​​residence.

To this end, the frequency with which each of these groups is the victim of different types of aggression and victimization situations is studied. Thus, the objective is to more efficiently prevent the most common problems of each of these sectors of the population.

Study of initiatives to resolve victimization

Finally, victimologists also examine all those projects that have the objective of solving situations of aggression or of minimizing their consequences once they occur.

Thus, they study private initiatives, the legal system of different countries, government aid and even the reaction of the media and society as a whole to the different types of victimization.

In this way, the aim is to increasingly improve this type of sector, so that victims receive personalized help and are able to really solve their problems.

References

1. "Victimology" in: Study. Retrieved on: July 04, 2018 from Study: study.com.
2. "Victimology" in: Britannica. Retrieved on: July 04, 2018 from Britannica: britannica.com.
3. "What is Victimology and Why Is It Important in Forensic Psychology" in: Walden University. Retrieved on: July 04, 2018 from Walden University: waldenu.edu.
4. "On Victimology and Victimization" in: Taylor & Francis Online. Retrieved on: July 04, 2018 from Taylor & Francis Online: tandfonline.com.
5. "Victimology" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: July 04, 2018 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.