Victimology: Study of Victims and Victimization

This document provides an overview of victimology, the study of victims and victimization. It explores the effects of crime on victims and the connections between victims, offenders, and society. The relevance of victimology in the criminal justice system is also discussed.

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

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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

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crimes. Criminologists strives to analyse the sociological and psychological driving factors
behind the crimes and in doing so, it studies the behaviours of different actors of the
phenomenon. However, victimologists are also concerned with the branch of criminology but
it differs from criminology with respect to the perspective from which it analyses the crimes.
Victimologists emphasizes on the victims and studies the phenomenon of crime from the
perspective of the victims. Victims are the targets of a criminal activity and are affected by
the crime. They analyse the process of victimization and strives to establish and study the
connections of the victims with the offenders, crime, society, law enforcements and the
government. The study of the victimologists deals with the effect that the phenomenon of
crime inflicts upon the victims. Criminologists are more involved in the study of crime as a
phenomenon including its factors and effects. However, victimologists are more concerned
about the victims and strives to analyse the effects inflicted upon them by the phenomenon of
crime.
The functions of the criminologists are more related to the analysis of the patterns and
causes of the crimes and making suggestions that might reduce the occurrence of crimes.
However, the victimologists are more concerned with the victims, how the victims are
affected by the crime. They focus on the relation of the victims with offender, society and
government and analyse various ways to comfort the victims. Both the criminologists and
victimologists are concerned with the study of crimes but the former studies crime as a
phenomenon and the latter studies crimes from the viewpoint of the victims.
The relevancy of victimology in the field of criminal justice system is evident from the
fact that victimology is nothing but a part of criminology (Armstrong et al., 2018). In
criminology, the main objective is to address and remove crimes from the society and prevent
the offenders from indulging into criminal activities. However, victimology mainly focusses
on the victims. It strives to derive some remedy and comfort to the victims by studying the

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different connections they have with the situations and the physical and emotional injury that
they went through. The criminal justice system has the responsibility to both reduce the crime
and its effects and to provide the victims with comfortable conditions by mitigating their
sufferings (Van Camp, & Wemmers, 2016). For providing remedy to the victims, the
knowledge of the conditions and issues faced by the victims needs to be obtained.
Victomology provides that information regarding the victims that helps the criminal justice
system to address. The relevancy of victimology in the criminal justice system is
indispensable.

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References
Armstrong, G. S., Branch, K. A., Cwick, J. M., Dretsch, E., Jones, T. R., Khan, S., & Spraitz,
J. (2018). Contemporary Issues in Victimology: Identifying Patterns and Trends.
Lexington Books.
Fattah, E. A. (Ed.). (2016). Towards a critical victimology. Springer.
Rothe, D., & Kauzlarich, D. (Eds.). (2016). Towards a victimology of state crime. Routledge.
Van Camp, T., & Wemmers, J. A. (2016). Victims’ reflections on the protective and
proactive approaches to the offer of restorative justice: The importance of
information. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 58(3), 415-442.
Walklate, S. (2016). Criminology: the basics. Routledge.