Crime and Victimology
Introduction
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.
Victimology: A Look into the Past
The study of victimology dates back to the early 1940’s. Marvin Wolfgang was one of the first victimologists. To fully understand victimology is to understand what a victim is. A victim is a person that has suffered physical or emotional harm from the hands of another person. Examples of this might be: rape, domestic abuse, homicide, and theft. Wolfgang was one of the first people to believe that crimes are not randomly committed by strangers.
They were two main victimologists who began the study of victimology after Marvin Wolfgang, Benjamin Mendelsohn and Hans von Hentig. They were considered “the fathers of victimology”.
Benjamin Mendelsohn conducted a rape study in 1940, where he interviewed victims to obtain information. From that information he concluded that most victims had an “unconscious aptitude for being victimized”. Mendelsohn also created a typology of six types of victims. Only the first type which is called the innocent type doesn’t put the blame on the victim, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The other five types represent the victim precipitation (which we will discuss later).
Hans von Hentig focused mainly on homicides and also came up with his own typology of four types of homicide victims. These types were: the depressive type, the greedy type, the wonton type, and the tormentor type. The depressive type is an easy target, careless and unsuspecting; this type is the most likely type of the four according to Hentig.
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.
Victimology: A Look into the Past
The study of victimology dates back to the early 1940’s. Marvin Wolfgang was one of the first victimologists. To fully understand victimology is to understand what a victim is. A victim is a person that has suffered physical or emotional harm from the hands of another person. Examples of this might be: rape, domestic abuse, homicide, and theft. Wolfgang was one of the first people to believe that crimes are not randomly committed by strangers.
They were two main victimologists who began the study of victimology after Marvin Wolfgang, Benjamin Mendelsohn and Hans von Hentig. They were considered “the fathers of victimology”.
Benjamin Mendelsohn conducted a rape study in 1940, where he interviewed victims to obtain information. From that information he concluded that most victims had an “unconscious aptitude for being victimized”. Mendelsohn also created a typology of six types of victims. Only the first type which is called the innocent type doesn’t put the blame on the victim, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The other five types represent the victim precipitation (which we will discuss later).
Hans von Hentig focused mainly on homicides and also came up with his own typology of four types of homicide victims. These types were: the depressive type, the greedy type, the wonton type, and the tormentor type. The depressive type is an easy target, careless and unsuspecting; this type is the most likely type of the four according to Hentig.
References: De Mesmaecker, V. (2010). Building social support for restorative justice through the media: is taking the victim perspective the most appropriate strategy?. Contemporary Justice Review, 13(3), 239-267. doi:10.1080/10282580.2010.498225 About the authors. (2002). Deviant Behavior, 23(3), 305. doi:10.1080/016396202753561266 -NCVLI - Centers - Law School - Lewis & Clark. (n.d.). Welcome to Lewis & Clark Law School in Beautiful Portland, Oregon. Retrieved February 16, 2012, from http://law.lclark.edu/centers/national_crime_victim_law_institute/about_ncvli/history_of_victims_rights/ Victimology. (n.d.). Deviant Crimes. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from http://www.deviantcrimes.com/victimology.htm Victimology Theory. (n.d.). NCWC: Faculty Pages. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from http://faculty.ncwc.edu/mstevens/300/300lecturenote01.htm Selwyn, L. (2010). Encyclopedia of Victimology and Crime Prevention. Library Journal, 135(15), 102. De Mesmaecker, V. (2010). Building social support for restorative justice through the media: is taking the victim perspective the most appropriate strategy?. Contemporary Justice Review, 13(3), 239-267. doi:10.1080/10282580.2010.498225 GRACA, S. (2008). Handbook of Victims and Victimology by S. Walklate (Ed.). Howard Journal Of Criminal Justice, 47(4), 443-444. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2311.2008.00534_2.x Dunn, J. L. (2010). Vocabularies of Victimization: Toward Explaining the Deviant Victim. Deviant Behavior, 31(2), 159-183. doi:10.1080/01639620902854886