What Is Victimology?

Victimology uses theories and methods of biology, psychology, and sociology to study the victims of crime and their relationship with crimes, and to explore the science of victim prevention.
discuss

Victimology uses theories and methods of biology, psychology, and sociology to study the victims of crime and their relationship with crimes, and to explore the science of victim prevention.

Chinese name

Victim research

Foreign name

victimology

Criminals, not victims, have long been the focus of the crime problem. In fact, the victims suffered greater trauma. In addition to damage to property and personal safety, the most important thing was the psychological blow. This is a more serious social problem than crime. Under these conditions, the Special Commission for Victims of Crime of the U.S. Presidential Advisory Board called for victims to be discussed within and outside the legal field in 1982. The Victim Protection Act was passed by Congress in 1984, and the issue of victims is getting more and more attention. The American Psychological Association established the American Psychological Association's Special Unit for Victims of Crime in 1982 to conduct research and provide assistance to victims.

The scholar who first studied the victim and the relationship between the victim and the offender was the German criminologist von Henkel. In 1941 and 1948, he carried out various aspects of the victim problem based on a large number of survey statistics. Detailed and systematic research. Become a pioneer in the study of victims. In 1947, Israeli lawyer Beniamin Madison first proposed the term "victimology." Since then, victimology has increasingly attracted the attention of scholars from the United States, Japan, and some Western European countries, and has gradually developed into an independent discipline. At the Fifth International Criminology Conference, held in Montreal, Canada in 1966, victim science was listed as one of the topics.

Victim Research Theoretical Research:

There are four aspects to studying the basic theoretical issues of victim psychology:

1. On the issue of psychological trauma caused by criminal activities to victims

Psychologists believe that criminal activities bring great short-term or long-term psychological trauma to victims, which is more serious than property damage. The consequences of it vary according to different circumstances and different victims;

2. On the issue of psychological stress

There are two theories. First, for the victims, criminal activities violate the deep-rooted organizational principles of their personalities and cause great pressure; second, psychological stress is a reaction, a reaction that loses psychological balance and a sense of security;

3. On how to overcome psychological trauma

Psychologists believe that the effectiveness of overcoming stress is related to the victim's adaptation. After the victim is harmed, the victim must ask others for help. The role of this help is as important as the work of treating mental illness;

4. In terms of theoretical discussion

Psychologists emphasized that attention should be paid to understanding how victims' relatives and friends have the same psychological trauma, and to pay attention to the psychological causes of increasing domestic violence and the characteristics of elderly victims. The personality of the victim is also a factor in the use of the criminal. When a victim shows weakness in a criminal act, loses self-esteem and fighting spirit, and has no will to resist, he can only react negatively. This psychological state is conducive to the criminal's completion of the criminal act.

Victim research

What the victim researched:

1.The research object, purpose and task of the victim research;

2. Classification of victims and their characteristics;

3. Victims and perpetrators of crime;

4. Causes of victimization, including studying the relationship between the victim's psychological activity, psychological state, and the offender's psychological state;

5. The rights and obligations of the victim and their litigation status;

6. Victim prediction, including the possibility of victim prediction, the method of victim prediction, and the relationship between victim prediction and crime prediction;

7. Victimization prevention, including the possibility of victimization prevention, the relationship between victimization prevention and crime prevention, and social control and prevention of victimization;

8. Victim compensation, including the object, scope, amount of compensation for the victim, and the institutions and procedures for compensation.

Some scholars also subdivided this research into three areas: individual victim research, group victim research, and social victim research, and made specific elaboration to further expand the scope to group, community and institutional activities, and social policies. aspect.