Ideal Victim
For the purpose of this essay I will be considering Nils Christie’s (1986) concept of the ‘ideal victim’. In considering this concept, I will discuss what is meant by an ‘ideal victim’ and will also be focusing on the high profile Australian criminal case of Anita Cobby in Blacktown on 2nd of February 1986. Anita Cobby was only 26 years old when she was abducted, brutally raped and murdered by four ‘ideal offenders’. This essay will also consider, the ways in which the media and criminal justice system have constructed Anita Cobby as an ‘ideal victim’.
Nils Christie explains that there are certain characteristics that make a victim an ‘ideal victim’. These characteristics are, young, old, weak, doing something respectable and legal, attacked by a stranger, in a public place, struggles valiantly and someone that brings the matter to the attention to the police (Christie, 1986). Individuals that perceive themselves to be the ‘ideal victim’, and those of which who are in the most danger of becoming victims do not necessarily fit under the term of an ‘ideal victim’.
As Christie (1986) states, an ‘ideal victim’ is ‘…a person or a category of individuals who - when hit by crime - most readily are given the complete and legitimate status of being a victim’. People that may have previously been in trouble with the law, also those with drug problems and the homeless would not be perceived as being an ‘ideal victim’, for they are seen to be not living a clean and pure lifestyle and are on the fringes of society. Also middle aged men are not perceived as being ‘ideal victims’ for they are seen to be strong not weak, and are able to protect themselves.
For there to be an ‘ideal victim’ there needs to be an ‘ideal offender’, without one there cannot be the other. As noted by ‘….Christie (1986), the more ideal a victim is, the more ideal becomes the offender. The more ideal the offender, the more ideal is the victim.’ The ‘ideal offender’ is different from the ‘ideal
Nils Christie explains that there are certain characteristics that make a victim an ‘ideal victim’. These characteristics are, young, old, weak, doing something respectable and legal, attacked by a stranger, in a public place, struggles valiantly and someone that brings the matter to the attention to the police (Christie, 1986). Individuals that perceive themselves to be the ‘ideal victim’, and those of which who are in the most danger of becoming victims do not necessarily fit under the term of an ‘ideal victim’.
As Christie (1986) states, an ‘ideal victim’ is ‘…a person or a category of individuals who - when hit by crime - most readily are given the complete and legitimate status of being a victim’. People that may have previously been in trouble with the law, also those with drug problems and the homeless would not be perceived as being an ‘ideal victim’, for they are seen to be not living a clean and pure lifestyle and are on the fringes of society. Also middle aged men are not perceived as being ‘ideal victims’ for they are seen to be strong not weak, and are able to protect themselves.
For there to be an ‘ideal victim’ there needs to be an ‘ideal offender’, without one there cannot be the other. As noted by ‘….Christie (1986), the more ideal a victim is, the more ideal becomes the offender. The more ideal the offender, the more ideal is the victim.’ The ‘ideal offender’ is different from the ‘ideal