Victimization Theories

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Victimization Theories

1. Victim Precipitation
2. Life Style
3. RAT

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Crime Victim

• The term "crime victim" generally refers to any
  person or group who has suffered injury or loss
  due to illegal activity
• The harm can be physical, psychological, or
  economic 

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Victimization Theories

• What makes someone a victim? Look at
  criminal-victim dyad
• Victim as agent provocateur
• Victim characteristics contribute to
  victimization
• Situational context
• Spatial characteristics
• Can we decrease our chances of being victimized?

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Victimization and situational setting

• Individual behavior is a product of an
  interaction between the person and the setting
• Most criminological theories pay attention only
  to the first, asking why certain people might be
  more criminally inclined or less so
• This neglects the important features of social
  setting

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Benjamin Mendelsohn (1956)

• Father of victimology coined term victimology
• Discovered strong relationship between
  victimization and social setting
• Classification based on legal considerations of
  the degree of the victims blame
• 1. completely innocent (being in the wrong place
  at the wrong time)
• 2. victims with minor guilt/due to ignorance
• 3. victim as guilty as offender/voluntary victim

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Victim Precipitation

• The degree to which victim is responsible for own
  victimization
• Wolfgang (1958) first to empirically investigate
  victim precipitation
• Investigated homicides in Philly from 1948-1952
• Common factors
• Often victim and offender know each other
• Alcohol plays role
• Incident often escalates from minor altercation
  to murder

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Victim Precipitation

• 60 of cases where women killed their husbands as
  victim precipitated
• 9 of incidents where men killed their wives as
  victim precipitated

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Wolfgangs Study

• Victim was the first to slap, punch, stab..
• The prevalence of victim precipitation in murder
  and assault is contrary to the popular image
  victims as totally innocent

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Victim Precipitation and Homicide

• Interpersonal dispute is a dominant
  characteristic of many homicides
• Five stages of escalation for typical homicide
• 1. Victim makes a direct offensive verbal attack
  against the offender (40 of victims initiate
  the homicide drama by verbal threat)

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Victim Precipitation and Homicide

• 2. The offender interprets the victims words and
  deeds as offensive
• 3. The offender makes the opening to pay back
  the victim for the previous insult
• 4. The eventual victim stands up to the
  offenders opening, responding with increased
  hostility

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Victim Precipitation and Homicide

• 5. Commitment to battles ensues, the victim is
  left dead or dying (35 of offenders carry gun or
  knives, and nearly 65 leave the crime scene to
  obtain weapons)

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Amirs analysis or rape

• Police records on rape incidents in Philly from
  1958-1960
• 19 of all forcible rapes were victim-precipitated
  
• Factors alcohol, seductive actions by victim,
  wearing revealing clothing, using risque
  language, bad reputation
• Offenders interpretation of actions is what is
  important not what victim actually does

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Provocative dress - active precipitation
Female victims contribute to their attacks by
provocative dressing/behavior
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Do you believe in victim precipitation?
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Passive Precipitation

• Occurs when the victim exhibits some personal
  characteristic that either threaten or encourages
  the attacker
• Related to power
• Group of immigrants arriving to the community and
  compete for job
• Love interest, promotion

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Problems with Victim Precipitation

• Assumption that behavior of victim can explain
  criminal act
• Responsibility Placed on Victim
• Creates Culturally Legitimate Victim
• Excuses Offenders Behavior

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Victimology Today

• Aim to search for the causes of victimization
• Search for remedies or prevention
• Concerned with
• How victims are defined
• How definitions are applied by victim by social
  scientists, by community
• How victims react to experience
• How society responds to victims systems for
  dealing with victims

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Lifestyle Theory

• Victimization is the function of the victims
  lifestyle
• Going out in public places late at night, living
  in urban areas
• High-risk lifestyles drinking, taking drugs,
  getting involved in crimes, leaving household for
  a long time, etc
• Do WSU students have high-risk lifestyles?

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Lifestyle Theory

• How to decrease your own victimization?

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Lifestyles Theory

• Micro-level theory
• Variations in lifestyle affect situations with
  high victimization risks that an individual may
  experience
• People associate with
• Working outside of the home
• Leisure activities
• Someone who has drug dealer as friend more likely
  to be victimized than someone with prosocial
  friends

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Empirical Tests

• General findings homes that are well-guarded are
  less likely to be burglarized, people who stay
  out late and drink heavily are more likely to be
  crime victims
• Schwartz and Pitts (1995) study of college women
  at Ohio University
• Most likely to be victim
• Number of nights go out drinking (suitable
  target/absence of guardianship)
• Whether have friends who get women drunk for
  purpose of having sex (motivated offender)
• Experiencing uncomfortable advances in bar
  (suitable target, motivated offenders, absence of
  capable guardianship)

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Dangerous Times

• Nighttime and weekends are the peak times for
  most violent crimes, property offenses, and
  public order violations
• Darkness is a criminogenic condition (fewer
  people are around, higher rates of drug and
  alcohol use, greater anonymity)

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Dangerous places

• Dangerousness of particular physical locations
  changes according to crimes
• Victims homes (homicide, assault, sexual
  offenses)
• Streets around victims homes and deserted areas
  near parking lots and entertainment
  establishments (muggers and auto thieves)

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Dangerous Times and Places for Homicide and
Aggravate Assault

• Homicide
• Evening hours (6pm-6a.m) (70)
• Weekends (39)
• Home/residence (35)
• Street/alley (39)
• Vehicle (10)
• Commercial places (6)

• Aggravated Assault
• Evening hours (6p.m. midnight) (49)
• Within 1 mile of residence (54)
• Streets/parking lots (34)
• In or near victims home (28)
• Schools (5)
• Home of friend/relative/neighbor (9)

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Victim profile in homicide and aggravated assault

• Homicide victims
• Male (76)
• White (50) African american(48)
• 13-24 years old (32)
• Same race of victim and offender (89)
• Single and never married (54)
• Urban resident (54)
• Employed (56)
• High risk occupations
• 1. Taxicab driver and Chauffeurs
• 2. Police/Law enforcement officials
• 3. Hotel clerks
• 4. Garage service station employee
• 5. Stock handlers and baggers

Aggravated assault victims Male (68) White
(77) African american(19) 16-24 years (17 per
100,000) Never married (13 per 100,000) Divorced/S
eparated (13 per 100,000) Family income lt7,500
(20 per 1,000) Urban resident (11 per
1,000) One-Victim incident (90) Victim tried to
protect self (74) Victim physically injured
(25) Average rate (7.5 per 100,000)
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Sociodemographic Characteristics of Offenders
Overrepresented for Each Crime Type
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Time and Place Elements of Crime Profiles
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Situational Elements of Crime Profiles
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Routine Activity Theory

• Cohen, Felson (195)
• Opportunity makes the thief
• RAT argues that when a crime occurs, three
  things happen at the same time and in the same
  space
• 1. a suitable target is available
• 2. there is the lack of a suitable guardian to
  prevent the crime from happening
• 3. motivated offender is present

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Routine Activity Theory
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A Suitable Target

• The first condition for crime is that a suitable
  target must be available
• There are three major categories of target
• a person
• an object
• a place

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Potential Targets

• Four things make a target suitable to an offender
  and these use the acronym VIVA
• Value. The offenders value the target for what
  they gain or value the effect they have on it
• For example, a burglary might occur because the
  burglar wants the stolen items or wants the money
  made from selling them
• Offender might damage a bus stop, because he/she
  gets satisfaction (value)

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Potential Targets

• Inertia. The size or weight of an item can effect
  how suitable it is. For example, items such as
  CDs and watches are suitable targets for
  shoplifters because they are small and portable.
• Visibility. How visible a target is can affect
  its suitability. For example, items left in view
  of a window or someone counting money near a cash
  point machine are visible targets.
• Access. If a target is easy to get to, this
  increases its suitability. So, goods displayed
  outside shops, or someone walking through a
  deserted street alone at night are accessible.

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Absence of a Capable Guardian

• A capable guardian is anything, either a person
  or thing, that discourages crime from taking
  place
• Police patrols, security guards, Neighbourhood
  Watch schemes, locks, fences, barriers, lighting,
  alarm systems, vigilant staff and co-workers,
  friends
• A guardian can be present, but ineffective. For
  example a CCTV camera is not a capable guardian
  if it is set up or sited wrongly
• Staff might be present in a shop, but may not
  have sufficient training or awareness to be an
  effective deterrent

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Likely Offenders

• Gain/Need poverty, to feed a drug habit, greed.
• Society/Experience/Environment living in a
  culture where crime is acceptable, because of
  peer pressure, coercion, lack of education, poor
  employment prospects, envy, as a rebellion
  against authority.
• Beliefs a belief that crime in general or
  particular crimes arent wrong, as a protest on a
  matter of principle, prejudice against certain
  minority/ethnic groups.

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The offender profile in burglary

• Male (88)
• White (68), African American (30)
• lt25 years old (64)
• Prior arrest record (79)
• Prior felony arrest record (68)
• Little offense specialization

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The victim profile in household burglary

• Highest
• lt19 years old head of household
• African American/Latino
• Incomelt15,000
• Urban resident
• Renter
• Six or more people in households
• Resident for less than 6 months
• Multifamily unit

• Lowest
• 65 or older head of household
• White/non-Latino
• Income gt75,000
• Rural/Suburban
• Owner
• Live alone
• Residents for more than 5years
• Single-family unit

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Benett and Wright (1984)

• Found that burglars use a variety of cues in
  selecting targets (empirical test of RAT)
• Surveillability refers to the extent to which a
  house is overseen by neighbors or passerby

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How to chose a target

• Signs of occupancy (internal lightening, cars
  in a garage, seeing resident in the house, noise,
  voices)
• Accessibility refers to easy of entry without
  detection (alarms, window and door bars, security
  entrances, etc)

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Empirical Validity of RAT

• Sherman (1989) hot spots study
• He focused on criminology of place and used
  Minneapolis police call data
• Most crime reports (calls) came from only 3 of
  all locations in the city
• Those places attracted offenders (absence of
  guardians)

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Evaluation of RAT

• RAT is not a theory of criminal behavior, it is a
  theory of criminal victimization
• Theory does not explain why some persons are
  motivated to commit crime
• Does not explain why informal/formal control
  exercised to prevent crime
• It just assumes that informal/formal guardians
  are not present or able to prevent crime, then
  crime will occur
• Theory of common sense (Akers, 2000)
• Sit at home, watch television, decrease chance of
  being victimized

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Policy Implications

• Situational Crime Prevention stop crime by
  preventing the intersection in time and space of
  offenders and targets that lack guardianship
• Make target less attractive and offenders will
  choose not to commit crime