CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL APPROACHES AND PERSPECTIVES IN
VICTIMOLOGY
THEORETICAL APPROACHES:
1. Lifestyle exposure model of personal victimization
o Hindelang, Gottfredson and Garofalo 1978
2. Routine activities approach:
o Cohen and felson 1979
3. Opportunity model
o Cohen, Kleugel and Land 1981
4. The differential risk model of criminal Victimization
o Fattah 1991
5. Extended low self-control theory:
o Shreck 1999
6. Extended control balance theory:
o Piquero and Hickman 2003
1. Lifestyle/exposure model of personal victimization:
Based on the notion that the likelihood of victimization depends on lifestyle and that
any change to the individual or group of individuals, whether potential victims or of
wrongdoers is sufficient to:
o increase or decrease exposure to risk and provide opportunities for
victimization
Indicates that lifestyle and victimization is related to demographic characteristics
such as:
o Age
o Gender
o Marital status
o Race
o Income
Prerequisites for victimization- Hindelang:
o An offender and a victim who meet at a particular time and place
o Some type of dispute or claim in which the offender regards the victim as a
suitable object of victimization
o An offender who is willing and able to use violence or the threat of violence
to achieve the desired result
, o An offender who regards the circumstances as advantageous for threatening
or for using force or stealth
Important elements of the lifestyle/exposure model:
o Role expectations
In line with expectation of others, people behave in certain ways and
develop lifestyles that are greater or lesser extent conducive to
victimization
An individual’s social role is determined by demographic
characteristics
o Structural constraints
Behavior in a particular role is not free of constraint
Familial, economic and legal structures can restrict behavioral pattern
of individuals
Economic factors – type of leisure activities and access to
opportunities
o Adaptions
Individuals adapt to role expectations and structural constraints in
ways that result in regularities in behavioral patterns
These regular behavioral patterns or routine activities
increase/decrease an individual’s changes of victimization
Adaption occurs at both individual and group levels
o Exposure
Direct link exists between lifestyle and exposure to situations in which
the risk of victimization is high
o Associations:
The indirect link between lifestyle and exposure occurs as a result of
associations
Associations refers to more or less situated relationships among
individuals that evolve as a result of similar lifestyles and hence
similar interests shared
Association with offenders who disproportionately have
particular characteristics would thus increase exposure to
victimization
2. Routine activities approach:
The focus of this approach is to explain how spatial-temporal organization of social
activities contributes to the translation of criminal propensities into criminal actions:
o Crime is the product or result of an opportunity that presents itself during
social activities that take place on the street on a daily basis called routine
activities
VICTIMOLOGY
THEORETICAL APPROACHES:
1. Lifestyle exposure model of personal victimization
o Hindelang, Gottfredson and Garofalo 1978
2. Routine activities approach:
o Cohen and felson 1979
3. Opportunity model
o Cohen, Kleugel and Land 1981
4. The differential risk model of criminal Victimization
o Fattah 1991
5. Extended low self-control theory:
o Shreck 1999
6. Extended control balance theory:
o Piquero and Hickman 2003
1. Lifestyle/exposure model of personal victimization:
Based on the notion that the likelihood of victimization depends on lifestyle and that
any change to the individual or group of individuals, whether potential victims or of
wrongdoers is sufficient to:
o increase or decrease exposure to risk and provide opportunities for
victimization
Indicates that lifestyle and victimization is related to demographic characteristics
such as:
o Age
o Gender
o Marital status
o Race
o Income
Prerequisites for victimization- Hindelang:
o An offender and a victim who meet at a particular time and place
o Some type of dispute or claim in which the offender regards the victim as a
suitable object of victimization
o An offender who is willing and able to use violence or the threat of violence
to achieve the desired result
, o An offender who regards the circumstances as advantageous for threatening
or for using force or stealth
Important elements of the lifestyle/exposure model:
o Role expectations
In line with expectation of others, people behave in certain ways and
develop lifestyles that are greater or lesser extent conducive to
victimization
An individual’s social role is determined by demographic
characteristics
o Structural constraints
Behavior in a particular role is not free of constraint
Familial, economic and legal structures can restrict behavioral pattern
of individuals
Economic factors – type of leisure activities and access to
opportunities
o Adaptions
Individuals adapt to role expectations and structural constraints in
ways that result in regularities in behavioral patterns
These regular behavioral patterns or routine activities
increase/decrease an individual’s changes of victimization
Adaption occurs at both individual and group levels
o Exposure
Direct link exists between lifestyle and exposure to situations in which
the risk of victimization is high
o Associations:
The indirect link between lifestyle and exposure occurs as a result of
associations
Associations refers to more or less situated relationships among
individuals that evolve as a result of similar lifestyles and hence
similar interests shared
Association with offenders who disproportionately have
particular characteristics would thus increase exposure to
victimization
2. Routine activities approach:
The focus of this approach is to explain how spatial-temporal organization of social
activities contributes to the translation of criminal propensities into criminal actions:
o Crime is the product or result of an opportunity that presents itself during
social activities that take place on the street on a daily basis called routine
activities
