How Has Victimology Evolved?

Victimology studies victims of criminals

Victimology is the study of victims of crimes. The goal of the study of victimology is to explain why a person is attacked by a criminal and victimized. Victimology has evolved over the years. Original theories that assigned significant blame to crime victims are replaced with victimology theories that analyze the criminal's motives and include the victim in rehabilitation efforts.

Consent Defense

Roman law recognizes a person's right to authorize another individual to harm the person. According to George Washington University, an early concept known as "volenti non fit injuria" establishes the consent defense. This law originally allowed many types of criminal activities to go unpunished, since the victim invited the crime. For example, a stranger claiming an invitation to visit a person's house is a defense against trespassing. The original consent defense in England included even absurd cases, such as requiring someone to pay a specified amount if they promised to make the Tower of London come to Westminster, according to George Washington University.

Martin Wolfgang

Victimology is mentioned in the writings of criminologists during the 1940s. One of the first victimologists was professor Marvin Wolfgang. According to Pennsylvania State University, Marvin Wolfgang was one of the first people to argue that crimes are not randomly committed by strangers. Wolfgang argued that victims of homicide frequently provoked the murderer by argument, and that criminals are often part of a subculture that encourages criminal activity. Wolfgang also traced modern crime and punishment to behavior of lawbreakers in Italy during the Renaissance, after studying evidence during one of his visits to the country.

Benjamin Mendelsohn

Benjamin Mendelsohn, a lawyer who studied victims of crimes, is sometimes called the father of victimology. Benjamin Mendelsohn performed surveys of rape victims and other people who reported crimes. He encouraged research into the causes of crime, including what actions the victim performed to make them vulnerable to criminals. According to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Mendelsohn pioneered a concept called Victim Precipitation, which assigns the victim some responsibility for attracting the criminal.

Schaefer and Functional Responsibility

Schafer studied victims of crimes and their attackers. Schafer wrote in response to earlier victimologists, who often assigned the victim blame for inviting a crime. Schafer developed a theory of functional responsibility, which reversed the theories of earlier criminologists by focusing on each person's criminal guilt instead of individual risk factors, according to Peru State College. Schafer replied to earlier victimologists such as Von Hentig, who had classified victims into types that were most likely to have a crime committed against them.

Modern Victimology

Current victimology studies are performed by the World Society of Victimology. This organization does not focus on assigning responsibility to victims. The organization mentions the additional concept of secondary victimization by the criminal justice system. For example, a victim of a rape may be forced to recollect the act on the witness stand in front of the judge and jury so that the rape suspect can be convicted. The World Society of Victimology also mentions the role of the victim in the reform and restitution of a convicted criminal.

References

• Pennsylvania State University: Wolfgang Martin
• North Carolina Wesleyan College: Victimology Theory
• University of Tennessee at Chattanooga: Development of Victimology
• Peru State College: Introduction and History of Victimology
• United Nations Crime and Justice Information Network: Handbook on Justice for Victims

Resources

• World Society of Victimology