Victimology Study Unit 1 PDF

Victimology Study Unit 1 Three victimology paradigms focusing on relationship between a victim and an offender: 1. Conservative law and order paradigm: A victim is a person that personally suffers harm, loss or injury. Offender carries all the blame, and the victim is regarde...

Victimology Study Unit 1 Three victimology paradigms focusing on relationship between a victim and an offender: 1. Conservative law and order paradigm: A victim is a person that personally suffers harm, loss or injury. Offender carries all the blame, and the victim is regarded as blameless. The need for victim rights is emphasized. 2. Radical victimology paradigm: Diffusion of roles between the victim and the offender. The offender is seen as someone who misuses his power. The victim is not viewed as entirely blameless. The rights of victims are seen as important, if it doesn’t interfere with the rights of the offender. 3. The critical victimology paradigm: Offenders are also viewed as victims and society is blamed for the crimes committed. Crime is a reaction to the society within which the offenders live and work. Vino’s process approach said a person is a victim if they go through all the Four stages: 1. A person is injured or suffers at the hands of another person or institution. 2. The injured person perceives the suffering as unjust and undeserved and regards themselves as being victimized. 3. The person will look outside themselves towards significant others, helping organizations or CJS for recognition of the fact that they have become a victim. 4. It is only when other people recognize and acknowledge that the person has been victimized that the person is regarded as a victim. Secondary Victimization: ❖ Despite the fact that the individuals already experienced victimization, they are victimized again by the insensitive treatment to those that were supposed to protect and assist them in the aftermath of the crime. Repeat Victimization: ❖ Some people are repeatedly victimized (being hijacked more than once). 1|Page  Characteristics that increase the potential for repeat victimization: Finkelhor and Asigian 1. Target Vulnerability: Physical weakness e.g. biological vulnerability or social vulnerability. 2. Target Gratifiability: A person who owns valuable goods that the offender wants to obtain. 3. Target Antagonism: Personal characteristics such as being part of a minority group. Important concepts in victimology: A. Precipitation: encourages the offender’s behavior. ❖ Active Precipitation: on purpose, (initiating a fight by provoking someone). ❖ Passive Precipitation: (unconsciously, having a personality trait that antagonizes the offender.) The offender would have offended regardless of what the victim did. Won’t prevent the crime, by educating them, lots of people can’t change their lifestyle. B. Facilitation: ▪ Victim unknowingly, carelessly or negligently makes it easier for the criminal to commit a crime. C. Impunity: ▪ Some individuals are more vulnerable, because they make it easy for the offender to get away with the crime. (sex workers can’t report being raped). 2|Page Study unit 2 Theoretical Approaches and Perspectives in Victimology Lifestyle/Exposure Model of personal Victimization: Victimization rates are linked to demographic characteristics such as age, gender, marital status and to a lesser extent, race and income. Younger people, men and single individuals are deemed more vulnerable. Family income affects lifestyle, influencing where individuals live and with whom they interact, which in turn affects their likelihood of victimization. Certain prerequisites for victimization to take place: An offender and a victim and a victim who meet at a particular time and place. Offender must regard victim as a suitable object for victimization. Offender must be willing and able to use violence or threat of violence to get the desired result. Offender must see circumstances as advantageous for the use of violence, or threat of violence. The important elements of the lifestyle/ Exposure Model: 1. Role expectation People behave in certain ways and develop lifestyles that are to a greater or lesser extent conducive to victimization. Social and economic changes have caused certain modification in modern society. Roles of female, always usually been more domestic. Males are usually perceived to be the stronger, physically, expected to ensure safety of his family. 2. Structural Constrains Familial, economic and legal structures can restrict the behavioral pattern of individuals. Economic factors might, example limit the choices available to a person in respect of residential area, type of leisure activities and access to educational opportunities (overpopulated area). 3. Adaptations Individuals adapt to role expectations and structural constrains in ways that result in regularities in behavioral patterns. Young people tend to increase the possibility of victimization by participating in high-risk activities. Attitudes and beliefs acquired during adaption can lead to certain constrains or limitations on behavior (adapt your lifestyle by walking in group). 3|Page  4. Exposure A direct link exists between lifestyles and exposure to situations in which the risk of victimization is high. Lifestyle differences are associated with differences in exposure to situations that have a high victimization risk (influence of alcohol, walking alone in the dark alley). 5. Associations Indirect link between lifestyle and exposure to victimization that occurs because of associations. Associations refers to “more or less sustained relationships among individuals that evolve as a result of similar lifestyles hence similar interests shared by these individuals.” Routine activities approach: Cohen & Felson The focus is to explain not why certain individuals are prone to criminal behavior, but how the spatial-temporal organization of social activities contributes to the translation of criminal propensities into criminal actions. The three elements that increase the risk of direct-contact predatory crime: The absence of any of these 3 elements will result in the failure to commit or successfully complete direct-contact predatory crimes. 1. Motivated Offender ▪ The motivated offender was initially accepted as a given in the routine activities approach. ▪ External control “presences or absences of others who might supervise a person “rather than internalized control. ▪ A fourth element also came into play: the “handler” “someone to whom the offender is emotionally or legally attached and thus can dissuade or deter the offender”, and the motivated offender became a potential one. 2. Suitable target ▪ Four components contribute to being considered a suitable target by an offender, Namely Value, Physical Visibility, Accessibility and Inertia. ▪ Effortlessness refers to the ease with which a target can be acquired is included here. ▪ A routine pattern of behavior may increase the possibility that property and/or individuals converge invisible and accessible places at a specific time. 3. Absence of a capable guardian (protection): ▪ Protection: any spatial-temporally specific supervision of people or property by other people, which may prevent criminal violations from occurring. 4|Page  ▪ Anyone who can prevent a crime because of their presences or direct actions can therefore be described as a guardian (protector). ▪ Crime hotspots, because individuals such as teenage males and unemployed adults often congregate in specific places. (dogs, group setting). The Opportunity Model: Cohen, Kleugel and land Five factors that play a role in the probability of Victimization: 1. Exposure o Exposure refers to the physical visibility and accessibility of people and objects at any given time or place. o Lifestyle theory, before predatory criminal victimization can take place, a motivated offender must encounter a potential victim or such victim’s property. o The more frequent this contact, the greater the opportunity to victims the potential target. 2. Proximity o Proximity refers to the physical distance between areas where the potential targets of crime are situated and areas where a large population of potential offenders may be found. o Many individuals are victimized not necessarily because of what they do but because of they live. o The offender studies them until they are more vulnerable to crime. 3. Guardianship o Guardianship refers to individuals (neighbors, security officers, the police) or Objects (alarms or locks) that prevent crime by their mere presence or through direct or indirect action. 4. Target Attractiveness o Target attractiveness refers to the material or symbolic desirability of individuals or property as target of potential offenders as well as the perceived ability or inability of the person to offer resistance. 5. Properties of specific offences o Refers to the degree to which the properties of the offences constrain instrumental actions of potential offenders. o Shits the emphasis from the characteristics of the offender to the characteristics of the situation. The differential risk model of criminal Victimization: Categories influencing the risk of criminal victimization 5|Page 1. Opportunities Criminal victimization does not happen by chance and often depends on available opportunities to victimize. Opportunities are related to the characteristics of potential targets (people, households and businesses) as well as to the activities and behavior of individuals. 2. Risk Factors Probability of being victimized is determined by a number of risk factors such as attractiveness, Suitability and Vulnerability. Sociodemographic characteristics such as age and gender, as well as factors such as the area of residence and the absence of guardianship. 3. Motivated Offenders Individuals living in a densely populated, poorly integrated environment with a great number of males between the age of 12 and 20 years run a greater risk of being victimized then those living in less densely populated area with a high percentage of middle aged and older residents. 4. Exposure Exposure to potential offenders and high-risk situations and environments might according to Fattah, increase the risk of personal victimization. 5. Associations Individuals who are in close personal, social or professional contact with potential offenders run a greater risk of being victimized. 6. Dangerous times and places Is not evenly distributed in time or space, and violent victimization takes place more often at night and in the early hours of the morning, over the weekends, on the street or in public places. 7. Dangerous behavior Certain behavioral patterns (Negligence, Ignorance, and Provocation) often increase ones’ risk for personal victimization. 8. High-risk activities Some occupations involve a certain exposure to personal victimization (police officials, security guards, bank tellers, doctors and nurses). Being sex workers may lead people into dangerous places at dangerous times. 9. Defensive/ Avoidance behavior Individuals attitude towards risks also influences their chances of becoming victims of crime. Risk takers are more often victimized than risk avoiders. Fear of crime may reduce the risk of victimization, since fear leads to individuals taking more precautions against crime. 6|Page 10. Structural/ Cultural Proneness There is a positive correlation between powerlessness, deprivation and the frequency of criminal victimization. Extended low self-control Theory: Schreck Self-Control theory: is based on the underlying assumption that behavior is motivated by the benefits and costs of the action. Low-self-control refers to the fact that people generally want immediate gratification of their needs and take into consideration the consequences. Elements of Self-Control 1. Future Orientation: Refers to the impulsiveness of the individual as well as to the measure to which the individual can postpone gratification. Low-self-control and impulsiveness decrease the likelihood of appreciating the long-term consequences of one’s actions. If you lack it, you don’t think about tomorrow. 2. Empathy A tendency to be indifferent or insensitive to the needs of others. Individuals with low levels of empathy have few friends, they don’t know their neighbors, lack ability to access surrounding or other individuals. 3. Tolerance for frustration The lower a person’s tolerance for frustration, the more likely he or she is to exhibit anger and be victimized because of it. The difference between being the offender or the victim when tolerance for frustration is low depends largely on who wins the fight (think before you do). 4. Diligence Low self-control is often associated with a lack in tenacity and persistence and a preference for simple tasks that require little commitment. Lack may result in the failure to take special precautions against personal victimization. 5. Preference for mental rather than physical activity Individuals who prefer physically activity are less likely to assess a risky situation and the possible consequences of their actions on cognitive or mental level. 6. Risk avoidance Individuals with low self-control are more inclined to place themselves in risky situations and participate in thrill-seeking activities that will make them vulnerable to victimization (hitch hiking or walking alone at night). 7|Page Extended Control balance theory: Piquero & Hickman ❖ Being controlled and being able to control are continuous variables. ❖ Control may change from a Control Deficit, where one’s desires or impulses are limited by other people’s ability to regulate or punish one’s behavior, to a Control Surplus. Two distinct elements: The amount of control one is subjected to. The amount of control one can exercises over others. 3 ways to restore the balance: deficit of control. They become aggressive [predation (violence)] They challenge the control or Authority [defiance (refrain from physical violence)]. They are totally Submissive. Too much control the following can happen: Surplus of control Exploitation of others (uses others to commit the crime on their behalf). Abusing their power (plunder). ❖ If there is a control deficit, the individual will become “weak” due to the inability to exercise it. ❖ They are at risk not because this imbalance in the control ratio weakens them, but due to their feelings of impunity, invulnerability and untouchability. ❖ Balanced control ratio-have the lowest victimization probability. Other theoretical developments Explanations on Macro level (wider social & cultural contex) I. Socio-Structural Perspective ▪ Victimization reflects the economic and power structures of society. ▪ Social disorganization- community where more crime is committed thus more people are victims. II. Socio-cultural Perspective (Feminist view) ▪ Victimization is the outcome of the historical treatment of women and the current make-up of society. ▪ In the past women were seen as the property of their fathers or their husbands. ▪ Victimization is an expression of male dominance in society. III. Physical Milieu Perspective ▪ People are victimized because they live in dangerous areas for instances in the city center, impoverished areas as Hillbrow, or a farm which is isolated. 8|Page Explanations on a Micro Level: 1. Socio-Interactionist Perspective ✓ Look at interaction between offender and victim. ✓ Victim Precipitation: individuals might initiate confrontation that may eventually result in injury or death. Two types: o Active Precipitation: where the victim initiates the action that results in victimization. o Passive Precipitation: where the victim unknowingly causes his victimization since the victim exhibits personal characteristics that could either threaten or encourage the offender. ✓ Situated transaction approach: The offender and the victim contribute to the development of a violent interaction in a series of stages: a) The first stage is characterized by an insult or verbal confrontation by the victim (an unwelcome remark or gesture). b) The second stage consists of the recipient’s assessment of these actions as offensive. c) During the third stage the response is critical in resolving the conflict. d) Stage 4 only comes in based on stage 3 (the physical altercation). ✓ General System theory: Look at systems, for example the family. Violence influences all the different parts of members of the system, all the family members are influenced, even if the violence is only directed at one of the members. Domestic violence is perpetuated because the family, as a closed system maintains the violence and isolates themselves from outside world. 2. Social exchange Perspective Individuals interact appropriately as long as both sides receives something in exchange and each party feels that the other is treating him fairly. Elder abuse: the elderly is dependent and needs someone to take care of him or her and can’t offer anything in exchange. This perceived imbalance can lead to victimization. This elderly person can’t do anything to stop the abuse and suffers in silence. 3. Learned helplessness theory. This theory explains the passive behavior subjects exhibit when placed in an uncontrollable situation. The theory consists of 3 basic components namely: Collecting information about what is going to happen. 9|Page  Hypothesizing about what will happen. Person’s behavior towards the vent that takes place. Felling of helplessness often leads to depression and anxiety. It is criticized for negating the social, economic and cultural reasons why women remain in abusive relationships. Point of criticism is that factors such as low self-esteem, a tendency to withdraw as well as a perception of loss of control are often the results of the abuse and not of attempts to prevent victimization. 10 | P a g e Study Unit 4 Law and Policies Supporting victims right in South Africa The south African Constitution 1996 Section 12 (1) states that everyone has a right to freedom from all forms of violence, thus the state has an obligation to protect the citizens of the country [section 12 (1)(C)]. Section 7 (2) requires the state to respect, promote and fulfill the rights in the Bill of Rights. Nb!!!! Carmichele V Minster of Safety and Security case study ✓ Alix Carmichele was attacked and seriously injured by a man who had been released on bail while awaiting trail on chargers of attempted murder and rape. ✓ He had been previously convicted of indecent assault and had a history of violent behavior towards women. ✓ Neither the prosecutor or the investigating officer opposed bail, and when he was found acting suspiciously outside Carmichle’s house the prosecutor and police both claimed there was nothing they could do. ✓ Carmichele brought a civil claim against the state, arguing that the police and prosecution were under a legal duty to protect her, and they failed, and she suffered damages as the results of that. ✓ The constitutional court found that positive obligation is imposed on the police through both the constitution and the South African Police Service Act 68 of 1995. ✓ The supreme court and high court did not stand with her until she won the case on the Constitutional court and was brought back to the high court. ✓ Took her 6 years to get to the constitutional court 12 years with sort out the money issues she requested for 4 million but was awarded 1 million and got R100000 and something as the rest went to legal fees. Domestic Violence Act 116 of 1998 Domestic relationship is defined as a relationship between a complaint and a respondent in any of the following was: People who were or are married to each other. They live together regardless of being of the same or opposite sex. They are the parents or have parental right. They are family members related by blood, adoption or consequently. They were or are on an engagement, dating or customary. Share or recently shared same resident. Domestic violence includes any of the following acts: ❖ Physical abuse. 11 | P a g e  ❖ Sexual abuse. ❖ Emotional, verbal and psychological abuse. ❖ Intimidation. ❖ Harassment and Staking ❖ Damage to property. ❖ Entry into the complainant’s residence without consent, where the parties do not share the same residence. ❖ Any other controlling or abusive behavior towards a complainant, where such conduct harms or may cause immediate harm to the safety, health or well-being of the complainant. Some of the problems with regards to implementation Some police officials are also reluctant to arrest someone who has breached the protection order, unless there is clear evidence of physical violence (even though the DV Act states that any type of violence is sufficient). Furthermore, police members are often not informing victims that in addition to the protection order they can lay criminal charges. If the victim does not lay a criminal charge, he or she is not taken to a medical practitioner – in other words if they later want to press charges there is no evidence. Corruption – especially where the police member knows the offender, Statements do not always contain all the necessary information. Certain myths such as the following, are rampant: women apply for protection orders because they are getting back at their partners; or to remove their husband and bring their boyfriend in to live with them; or women who apply for protection against emotional abuse are not in any real danger of being harmed. One out of five cases of women who go to the police or courts are threatened with death or other harm by their domestic partners if they pursue the CJS process. The Protection from Harassment Act 17 of 2011 In a DV relationship, the DV Act can be used to restrain harassment and other similar violations within the domestic sphere. On the other hand, the Protection from Harassment Act 17 of 2011 deals with all types of harassment including stalking which occurs outside the domestic sphere. A protection order – can apply to a range of circumstances including harassment by strangers, co-workers or harassment in an educational setting (bullying) and even in the Internet environment (cyberbullying). Victims can apply for a protection order or lay charges of criminal injustice, assault, trespassing or extortion. A child, or someone on behalf of a child, may apply for a protection order. If the protection order is breached, a person can be sentenced to 5 years imprisonment, in the form of periodic imprisonment, treatment, programmes & community service. 12 | P a g e 13 | P a g e