Essay on Ideal Victim

This essay will discuss the ways in which gender influences patterns and processes of victimisation, identifying key victimological perspectives and typologies. It will consider key authors in the discipline and offer definitions of terms used. The essay will identify three issues which may impact on gendered victimisation before acknowledging the argument that radical victimology offers a more balanced approach to gendered victimisation than positivist or critical viewpoints.

The introduction of Nils Christie’s ‘Ideal victim’ theory (1986: 18) refers to victims of crime who can attain the status of a legitimate victim in the eyes of the public. Christie outlines a criteria which needs to be followed in order to gain this full status of a ‘legitimate victim’. Christie’s ‘ideal victim’ however is not the same as a legal victim and often real victims of crime deviate far from the concept of the ideal victim (Beck & Janbakhsh 2010). This therefore means that using Christie’s ideal victim theory to give someone the title of a legitimate victim is often detrimental. Male victims of sexual assault often deviate from the ‘ideal victim’ criteria set out by Christie, this means that when they encounter the justice system, their experiences are often marginalised or discounted entirely.

In the article, Abuser & Victim…Alike, the author argues that both the abuser and the victim share responsibility for their situations. This is only true if we choose to believe that such people voluntarily stay and allow the abuse to continue. In this sense, some truth might exist, however, we must remember the lack of control felt by each victim, as well as the emotional torment they experience that serves to trap them in their current situations. Alternatively, it would be difficult for the author to validate such a claim of shared responsibility if the abused were a child, disabled or mentally handicapped person. To a certain degree, the author himself contradicts his previous statement when he comments that “abusers have all the power”.

While most of these schools do not give a lot of information about the victim, except for each type of school has had one big case where there the articles give a lot of information about the victim. Harvard was the only Ivy league school to release the name of a victim, Alyssa Leader and two students from the class of 1960 and 1964, from any of the Ivy League school. In an Huffington Post article Alyssa Leader name is used. The article stated, “[Alyssa] Leader officially filed a school complaint against Doe for abuse, sexual assault and harassment in February 2015, prompting a university investigation. Her main goal was to have him removed from her dorm, she told HuffPost,”

In life, the line that separates victims from perpetrators is as clear as a window pane, but in some situations that window can crack, causing damage and danger. A victim is someone who has been harmed, or worse, due to a crime or accident. A perpetrator is a person who has committed a crime, either accidently or purposely. Three stories that capture this blurred line are Shattered, an Australian Story episode on ABC’s website, The Story of Tom Brennan, a story written by Australian author J.C.Burke, and In My Little Town, another Australian Story episode. They all share the common theme of having a blurred line between victim and perpetrator.

The term is often related with negative meanings of powerlessness, passivity, and some victims could be even perceived as inferiors. It is also important to note that when the word ‘victim’ is gendered, it is biased towards the female sex. Therefore, assumptions that females are passive and weak also coincide with the assumptions of victims. The alternative term ‘survivor’ is sometimes preferred, particularly by feminists, as it places emphasis on their strength and the severity of the experience with crime. In addition, groups may also be victims; usually involving a type of hate crime such as racism or homophobia.

Murphy and Barkworth (2014) discuss how when someone is victimized they can feel like they have lost their place in society, again questioning ‘why me?’. By allowing the victim to participate and have a voice through their Criminal Justice process they feel more satisfied and feel valued as a person, regaining their prior status in the community (Murphy and Barkworth, 2014). Victims can also receive an explanation from the offender as to why and what happened the day they were victimized, this helps victims to avoid secondary victimization (in some circumstances) and also process their feelings of self-blame, especially cases of domestic violence and sexual assault (Miller and Heffner, 2013). Doak (2006) conducted a study where youth offenders were face-to-face with their victims and given the opportunity to explain themselves. In this study it was found that the victims were more interested in seeing something positive happen from the interaction, rather than seeking a negative result for the offender. One victim participating stated, “I don’t think punishment is important – it is about putting you back on the straight and narrow” (Doak and O’Mahony, 2006). Not only is having a voice a crucial part of the process for the victim, it gives the offender a chance to apologize and deal with their offence (Doak and O’Mahony,

Robert Elias' book, 'Victims Still';, presents a very controversial stance that the victims' movement is, perhaps, not at all. Elias suggests that all the programs, laws, and institutions that have been created in the 1980s and 1990s have done absolutely nothing to help the victim. Elias also offers explanations as to how the victims' movement doesn't help victims, what the real causes of crime are, and how crime should be controlled.

Victimization can happen to anyone, and if certain factors exist, the risk of being trafficked through prolonged victimization increases tremendously. In the case of Sara, being forced into prostitution and continuously abused is what led her to becoming an offender. Larry J. Siegal, in his book, Criminology: The Core, explains the factors which leads to victimization and to committing crime through these theories: the victim precipitation theory, lifestyle theory, deviant place theory and the routine activities theory. These theories along with some mental disorders are apparent in the case of Sara Kruzan, with the Deviant Place Theory and the Routine Activities Theory being more prevalent. Although severely victimized, Kruzan became an offender

Women of different races, age groups, and lifestyles have dealt with sexual, physical, and psychological abuses from history until today.

Also, “Feminist researchers have criticised the above approaches, suggesting that examining victims’ behaviour for its role in the perpetration of a crime may constitute blaming the victim, thereby holding them responsible for their plight.” (Spalek, B 2006). Feminist would also criticize the way in which the positivist approach uses victim perception to address rape victims. They would argue that this leads to victim blaming and lack of trust within the criminal justice system, this could then results in secondary victimisation.

For most individuals, the thought of blaming the victim of a tragic experience for their own pain and suffering, seems preposterous. However, ascribing at least some of the blame to the victim is not uncommon (Niemi & Young, 2014). Victim blaming refers to individuals finding reasons to hold the victim of an incident responsible for the crime that took place (Hayes, Lorenz & Bell, 2013). For victims of sexual assault, who may already be experiencing self-blame and distrust of others, being blamed adds insult to injury (Harber, Podolski, & Williams, 2015). According to Harber et. al, victim blaming can also have long-term effects on victims, such as, increased anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. In an effort to increase support and resources for survivors of sexual assault researchers must determine why individuals are prone to blaming the victims rather than the perpetrator of a crime.

The process of addressing memories of private suffering within “The Victims” by Sharon Olds is implied through contradictive perspectives. In the poem there is a shift in focus and tone during line 17. The poem addresses issues of suffering from two distinct perspectives, the first coming from a little girl and the second a grown woman. The narrative, imagery and diction are different in the two contrasting parts of the poem, and the second half carefully qualifies the first, as if to illustrate the more mature and established attitudes of the narrator in her older years – a stipulation of the easy imitation of the earlier years, when the mother’s views dominated and set the tone. Change has governed the poems structure here; differences

From the beginning of time there have always been crimes against persons. People went by the saying “An eye for an eye”. You stole from your neighbor, they stole from you. You hurt someone, they hurt you. It wasn’t until the 1940’s people started taking a closer look into these crimes against person, which they later called victimology. This paper will look into victimology and their theories as we go back into the past and how victimology is now.

The study of victimology includes several different theories. These theories are victim-based, interactional, societal-based, and ecological. However, before on can begin discussing these theories, the history of the development of victimology theories need to be broached. Although victimology may lack a singular theoretical foundation based within the field itself, it can be said that the field as a whole represents the application of several different theoretical insights that were developed from other disciplines. The first of these other disciplines is criminology. From his work, Vold (1958) was able to provide a framework for categorizing theories that relate to victimology. Within this paper the discussion will begin with the early spiritual explanations, followed by