Volume 1 Number 1, December 2004
Tokyo: Seibundo Publishing Co., Ltd.
ISBN 4-7923-9138-5 Price 1,500yen
- Editorial
- John P. J. Dussich
- Criminal Victimization and Victim Services across the World:
Results and Prospects of the International Crime Victims Survey - Jan van Dijk and Anna Alvazzi del Frate
Centre for International Crime Prevention, United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, Vienna, Austria- Abstract
- The International Crime Victim Survey (ICVS) has to date been carried out in seventy countries among samples of 1,000 citizens and over. The surveys collect information on crime directly from citizens, independently from official records. On average, 28% of citizens living in urban areas had been victimized at least once in a conventional crime during the preceding 12 months. Victimization rates in Africa and Latin America were significantly higher still (35% and 46% respectively). Only a part of the victimizations had been reported to the police. Especially in developing countries the majority of victims refrain from reporting from a lack of confidence in the professionalism or integrity of the police. Worldwide, less than half of those who do report are satisfied with their treatment by the police. Very few victims who report to the police had received support from a victim support organization (7 % of all victims of contact crime). Results revealed the pervasiveness of victimizations in crimes across the world and the gross inadequacy of official responses almost everywhere. The ICVS will continue to be conducted in countries across the world in the coming years. The surveys can help to raise awareness of the need to better protect citizens against threats to their personal security and to respect their human rights.
- Victim Blaming Theory and Research:
Impact on Professional Practice - Thomas Underwood
Joint Center on Violence and Victim Studies, Washburn University, KA, USA- Abstract
- Victimological research and practice has advanced considerably in its short time as a discipline and field. Advances in the understanding of victimization and the delivery of services in the relatively recent past have been tremendous. In spite of this progressive nature, crime victims are often blamed for their predicament, even by victim-oriented researchers and service providers. The tendency to blame victims is a natural phenomenon that may be understood within the cultural framework. It can also be understood as an individual defense to the threat of victimization. This article explores the various theoretical explanations that underlie the phenomenon of victim blaming, reviews the literature that explores some of the individual and contextual variables that may affect the tendency to blame, and reviews the research regarding how various professionals blame victims in practice. This inquiry is relevant both philosophically and pragmatically.
- The Evolution of Victimology:
A View over Italy and Europe through Research - Augusto Balloni and Roberta Bisi
Department of Sociology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy- Abstract
- The article examines the situation of victimology and the evolution of laws in this discipline in Italy and in Europe focusing attention on research that points out that the victim and the criminal are in constant parallel, even if in the interpretative dynamic of the offense the victims have always been left in darkness. From this information on the existing initiatives and on the various parliamentary bills, it can now be seen that in Italy, and on a wider scale, in Europe, there is an open debate on the issue of victims and on the need to create legislation to protect those who have suffered injury and who seek compensation and assistance. In the attempt to overcome the feeling of insecurity , from an operational point of view, it will be necessary to observe, to study and to manage the conflict not in the abstract but preferring an approach where the services to aid victims are open. On the one hand, to a greater orientation and, on the other hand to the peculiarity, this will be possible only within a space seen as connection and relationship.
- Victimology without Victimology:
The Status of Victimological Research in Scandinavia - Ole Kristian Hjemdal
Norwegian Center for Studies of Violence and Traumatic Stress, Oslo, Norway- Abstract
- In the three Scandinavian countries, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, victimology has had a rather weak standing as an academic subject. There are, however, a substantial number of victim assistance initiatives, and some national schemes have been developed. This may be of importance in understanding the selection of themes and perspectives for much of the victimological research conducted in Scandinavia. Even though the three Scandinavian countries are similar culturally, politically and economically, there are some significant disparities in the importance placed on victimological studies and the support given to victimological research.
- Victimological Research in Germany
- Gerd Ferdinand Kirchhoff
Tokiwa International Victimology Institute, Graduate School of Human Science, and College of Applied International Studies, Tokiwa University, Mito, Japan- Abstract
- German contributions to contemporary victimology are numerous, but difficult to locate. This article looks into the reception of international victimology, facilitated by Hans Schneider, and his scientific work in victimology, and at German contributions to establishing victimology as an international field of science. It looks at victimological insights in a newly established regular governmental report, a mine of victimological research results in Germany. Contributions from the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law (Max Planck Institute fuer Auslaendisches und Internationales Strafrecht: MPI), of the Center of Criminology (Kriminologische Zentralstelle) and of the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (Kriminologische Forschungsinstitut Niedersachsen: KFN), follow. They demonstrate a wide scope of victimological research that is dominated still by research topics related to criminal justice. New research fields are highlighted.
- A Precis of Victimology Research in South Africa
- Linda Davis
Department of Criminology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
Rika Snyman
Department of Criminology, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa- Abstract
- Various South African research projects were conducted in the field of Victimology with the aim of understanding the nature and extent of victimization; to determine strategy, policy and priorities; to develop and implement projects; and to improve existing systems and processes. Victimology research done over the past three decades can broadly be divided into three categories, namely victim surveys (international, national and local victim surveys), basic research on special categories of victims (usually by postgraduate students and researchers from academic institutions) and applied research. The applied research has as its aim to evaluate existing projects/processes (e.g., treatment of the victim by the South African Police Service and the criminal justice system; the implementation of the Victim Empowerment Program and specific legislation such as the Domestic Violence Act, 116 of 1998 as well as restorative justice practices). A further aim is to inform legislation (e.g., the Child Justice Bill and the Sexual Offenses Bill). The aim of this paper is to provide a precis of victimology research in South Africa over the past three decades and to highlight some of the challenges in conducting research in South Africa.
- The Status of Victimological Research and Victims’ Rights in the United States
- Robert A. Jerin
Endicott College, Law and Justice, Endicott College, Beverly, MA, USA- Abstract
- It has long been thought that the origins of victimology research occurred in the mid 1900s. In the United States, the scholarly study of crime victimization and its impact on crime victims had its beginnings in 1924, undertaken by criminologist Edwin Sutherland. The development of crime victims’ rights legislation has a more recent history. Rights and services for crime victims had a meager beginning in the 1960s, developed a foundation in the 1970s, became nationalized in the 1980s and 1990s and continue to expand today. This research is a descriptive study that examines the initial scholarly study of crime victims in the United States and the historical pathways, research and crime victims’ rights have followed to the present day. The article concludes by theorizing about the future of crime victims’ rights legislation.
- Clinical Victimological Research in Emergency Forensic Units in France and Israel: The Jean Verdier Model
- Jean-Pierre Benais
Service des Urgences Médico-Judiciaires, Hôpital Jean Verdier, Bondy, France
Israel-Bernard Feldman
Social Sciences Department, University of Tel Aviv, Israel
Michel Garnier
Service des Urgences Médico-Judiciaires, Hôpital Jean Verdier, Bondy, France- Abstruct
- In 1986, France instituted an original care system, Medico-Legal Emergency Services, for victims of criminal offenses and their aggressors. These services treat adult and juvenile victims of urban violence, interfamily violence and sexual assault, as well as their supposed aggressors. Eventually, all courts of law in the Paris region requested such medico-legal units. Research on these units, which examine about 250,000 victims each year, represents the most significant field of research in the domain of victimology. A similar care system for victims of criminal offenses is currently being set up in Israel drawing on the experience of the French model. Collaboration between universities and researchers in France and Israel has gradually developed at the level of research and education. The French and Israeli instructors take part in mutual studies on victimology and criminology within the framework of the UNITWIN (UNESCO) Chair, “Dealing with Violence: A Transdisciplinary Challenge” (supervised by Gérard Lopez, M.D.), as well as in numerous joint research programs in all major branches of the discipline.
- The Witness and the Victim’s Protection in Argentina:
Research on the Adaptation and Impact of Norms of Protection in the Criminal Justice System - César Fortete
Centro de Investigaciones Jurídicos y Sociales, Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina- Abstract
- This work shows some results research on the insertion of crime victims in criminal policy in Argentina. The objective of the research is to analyze legal resolutions that tend to facilitate the adaptation of judicial procedures to the victim’s needs in Argentina and to see the impact on the criminal justice system. Within this perspective, the goal of the current study is to analyze some legal provisions aiming to protect the victim and the witness against the effects of its intervention in different legal acts and against possible attempts to their safety as a consequence of being a witness. In analyzing this we tried to establish the existence of problematic focal points related to the relationship between the victim’s rights, the defendant’s rights, the state’s punitive interest, and concluding with a consideration about the influence of these rights to the criminal justice system.
- Victimology, Research, and Helping Victims in Britain
- Peter Dunn
Head of Research and Development, Victim Support, National Office, London, UK- Abstract
- This paper describes three approaches to victimology with reference to Britain during thirty years to 2004. It discusses several research projects concerning the needs of victims and the effects of victimization, with particular reference to the practical implications of these for the development of victim services and more victim-centered practice in British criminal justice agencies. The development of Victim Support during this period is referred to, in the context of victimological research, theory, and the gradual emergence of a government strategy for victim and witnesses.
