History of Victimology

The women's movement, also known as the feminist movement, started with the

suffrage movement

What best describes the concept of secondary victimization?

Being punished by society for being a victim

The earliest research on victims was conducted by

Beniamin Mendelsohn, Hans von Hentig, Stephen Schafer, and Marvin E. Wolfgang

Which early founding figure of victimology is referred to as its "father"?

Benjamin Mendelsohn

National Child Labor Committee (1904)

Campaigned against child labor

Mendelsohn had six victimization categories:

Completely innocent victim - no provocative behavior Victim with minor guilt - the victim unintentionally places him or herself in a compromising situation Victim as guilty as offender - the victim engages in a crime and was hurt Victim more guilty than offender - the victim promotes or initiates the act Most guilty victim - the victim starts off as offender and is hurt in return Imaginary victim - someone who pretends to be a victim

What scenario best describes victim facilitation?

Mark's practice of leaving his house unsecured made it easier for the thieves to gain entry.

Which early victimologist focused specifically on three factors that precipitate a victim's homicide?

Marvin E. Wolfgang

Victim and Witness Protection Act of 1982

Passed by Congress to provide fair treatment standards to crime victims and witnesses

What characterizes the concept of subintentional homicide?

Poor judgment on the part of the victim

Lex talionis is a form of what concepts associated with victimology?

Retribution

During the New Deal in the 1930s, child welfare was included in the

Social Security Act, which created Aid to Dependent Children and the Children's Bureau, which helped rural children during the Depression. This offered some legal protections to children, including child labor laws and child protections from abuse and neglect.

Linda R.S. v. Richard D

The Court held that the unwed mother lacked standing to force prosecution of her child's father for failure to pay child support, since prosecution would not ensure that she would receive the child support.

Wolfgang (1958) analyzed Philadelphia's police homicide records from 1948 through 1952 and found three factors common to victim-precipitated homicides:

The victim and offender had some prior interpersonal relationship. There was a series of escalating disagreements between the parties. The victim had consumed alcohol.

What best describes the concept of intersectionality as it relates to victimology?

The ways people are impacted by their own multiple social identities

Schafer's categories:

Unrelated: The victims have no responsibility in their own victimization. Provocative: There is shared responsibility by the victims. Precipitative: The victims have responsibility for their victimization because they place themselves in situations that might lead to victimization. Biologically weak: There is no responsibility, but the victims are easy targets because they are perceived as weak, such as the elderly. Socially weak: No responsibility but victims are easy targets because they are not well integrated into society, such as immigrants. Self-victimizing: Total responsibility. An example would be prostitution. Political: No responsibility. They were victimized because they were opposing those in power.

What concept of victimology refers to the role an individual plays in his or her own victimization?

Victim precipitation

victim-criminal dyad

Who the victim is initially is not always clear when you just look at the outcome of the crime

Cesare Beccaria

critiqued the way that crimes were punished

lex talionis

eye for an eye

Benjamin Mendelsohn

father of victimology

Timmer and Norman (1984) pointed out that the behavioral patterns that can lead to victimization differ across

gender, race, and involvement in criminal activities. Their research showed the utility of distinguishing victims' acts that can lead to victimization, and highlighted the complexity of victim precipitation.

The idea of the state or government as both the victim and the one who should seek justice began during the

industrial revolution

Victim Facilitation

is the idea that a victim did something to make him or herself a more likely target for a criminal. This view is similar to victim precipitation.

Victimology

is the study of the victims of crime with the goal to create a general theory to help prevent victimization

Victim Provocation

is when the victim did something intentional that led to his/her victimization.

Intersectionality

is when you look at how multiple social identities (race, class, gender socioeconomic status, etc.) come together to impact a person's life, including their victimization

Third-wave feminism also began discussing violence against marginalized people such as

minority women, the LGBT community, single mothers, and the differently abled.

Beniamin Mendelsohn's early work focused on

rape victims

Justice often took the form of

retaliation or retribution against the offender

First-wave feminism's (1860s to 1920s) goal was to

see that women had legal personhood to ensure that women's voices were heard

Second-wave feminism (1960s to 1980s) focused on

sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, and official legal inequalities. It also focused on victimization, domestic violence and marital rape, and advocated for changes in custody and divorce law

Wolfgang was the first to offer

significant empirical evidence to support the role victims might play in their victimization

Third-wave feminism (1990s to mid-2000s) explored the

social construction of gender and sexuality, as opposed to being biological characteristics, and are therefore flexible and malleable

Fourth-wave feminism is just beginning (2008 to today). It focuses on

social justice and civil rights, including sexual harassment, street harassment, the role of social media and technology in creating equality, and everyday sexism

Henry Bergh

started the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children

The Sheppard-Towner Act of 1912

strengthened the concept of parens patriae and included a call for strong child welfare policies and funding

Payne v. Tennessee (1991)

the U.S. Supreme Court stated clearly that victims were not anonymous victims but needed to be clearly recognized as important players in the legal process.

victim precipitation

the role of the victim in provoking or encouraging criminal behavior

Hans von Hentig began to ask about

the victims of crime: Were these people who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time or do certain characteristics make a person more likely to be a victim? What made a victim a victim?

Wolfgang and Singer (1978) expanded the discussion of victim types to look at a variety of crimes and

victim recidivism and acknowledged that the process of becoming a victim was a complex one that would take time in order to truly understand.

The term "victim" comes from the Latin word

victime

parens patriae (a Latin term that means "parent of the country")

which gave the state the power to serve as the guardian (or parent) of those with legal disabilities, including juveniles

Jeremy Bethman

whose work focused on how social and legal reforms could create a better moral society. Both were highly influential on the future of criminology