Victimology: Study of Victims and Victimization

Running head: CRIMINAL LAW
Criminal Law
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CRIMINAL LAW
Memo
Victimology implies a study of the victims and victimization analysing the connection of
the victims with the offenders and the criminal justice system. It includes the study of crimes
from the perspective of victimization and the effect that crimes inflict upon the victims.
Victimology is a branch of criminology that studies the victims of a crime or the victims who
have been deprived of their basic human rights (Fattah, 2016). In doing the same, an in-depth
analysis of the background to which the victim belongs and the psychological effect that the
crime inflicts upon the victim needs to be effected. It provides an idea about personal
vulnerability that follows victimization. The victims of a crime are prone to lose their
capability to cope with challenging situation. This is the result of the psychological
breakdown that has occurred due to the tremendous effects of the crime inflicted upon them.
The victims lose their capability to resist a crime. The fear of the crime or more precisely the
fear of getting affected by a crime has resulted in the personal vulnerability. Victimology
deals with the causes of such vulnerability and strive to formulate policies to eradicate them
(Rothe & Kauzlarich, 2016).
The term victimology and criminology although seems to be synonymous but there lies a
thin line of difference. Hence the expressions victimologists and criminologists are also
implies different meanings. Criminology implies a study of the crime and how the victims,
offenders, society and the consequences are related to the crime (Walklate, 2016). Therefore,
the criminologists are concerned with the study of crime as an individual phenomenon, the
offenders being the cause and the victims and society as the targets to that phenomenon.
Crime implies an activity or act that is illegal or in contravention of the laws. The functions
of a criminologists comprises of the study of the laws, regulations and ethical sanctions that
has been implemented by the government and the society to cope with the phenomenon of