Victimology & the criminal
justice system
Week 1: Introduction
Krantenartikels
Artikel paus: vroeg vergiffenis voor slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik door de kerk.
Artikel vrouw baby reindeer: stalk casus
Artikel Cambodia: cambodian genocide, mensen die mishandeld werden
Introductie
Het woord victim komt van het Latijnse woord victima. Dit betekent een offerbaar dier.
Grafiek risk of victimisation:
Victim blaming = het slachtoffers de schuld geven van wat gebeurd is.
Boek ‘I shall not hate’: man wiens dochters gestorven zijn in de oorlog. Hij bleef
zeggen dat hij geen haat heeft zelfs na deze gebeurtenissen.
Boek ‘Aftermath’ – Susan Brison
See also Brison 1993 (Toledo tekst!)
Illustrating some of the main themes of this course
Excerpt 1:
Auteur van het boek beschrijft haar ervaring van sexual assault. Ze beschrijft
ook de ervaring van de hulpverlening die ze kreeg.
• Importance of different feelings and different emotions
• Which ones did Brison mention? What other ones might be important in the
aftermath of victimisation? Shame, guilt…
• The importance of victims’ experiences with criminal justice actors!
• The manner in which this influences and interacts with the primary experience
of victimisation
• The way others react to victimisation:
o The importance of explanations and sense-making
o The difference/ conflict between the reaction of the social surroundings
and the victim’s experiences
, • Importance of the way people experience their own victimization: the will
create a story about what happened
o “Phenomenology” of victimization
Excerpt 2:
Who do you resemble the most? People will choose the person who isn’t a victim,
even though they look exactly the same. People distance themselves from victims.
This is because they believe that victims must have done something to deserve it!
• ‘Just world theory’
Victimization statistics:
• How do we know that only one in ten rapes are reported?
• Bevragen van slachtofferschap + aangifte bij politie of niet. Is nog steeds een
onderschatting, omdat velen het niet willen vertellen.
The International Crime Victim Survey
• Jan van Dijk (emeritus professor INTERVICT and former policy
maker in the Netherlands and the UN)
• First survey in 1966 in US, from 1972 onwards nationally
• In 1973 in the Netherlands, 1989 ICVS
• Winner of the Stockholm-prize 2012 (sort of Nobelprize for
criminology!)
Typical crime stories: mostly focus on the detectives instead of the victims.
What struck me?
• The conflicting demands of viewing victimisation:
• Sympathy for the victim, distress and aversion for the situation
• Recognition of the need for relief and restoration, but lack of practical abilities
to do so
Excerpt 3:
Hans Von Hentig
• German professor
• Fled to the US from Nazi-Germany
• ‘The criminal and his victim’ from 1948
• Seen to be the founder of victimology
Victim precipitation
• = role of the victim in the event of crime
• Positive: how can (potential) victims protect themselves, see also crime
prevention.
• Negative: should we blame the victim for his or her conduct?
Image we have of victims – old, female people are often perceived as victims rather
than young men. But in reality chances of being a victim are way higher for the young
men.
Ze worden vaker slachtoffers, omdat ze denken dat dit nooit zal gebeuren. Hierom
gaan ze een potentiële situatie waarin ze slachtoffer kunnen worden niet uit de weg.
Dit is gelinkt aan stereotypes. Hoe we slachtoffers percipiëren is belangrijk.
,Soms worden mensen ook bekeken als slachtoffer, maar door anderen dan weer als
aanvaller.
Week 2: Victimology: history and perspectives
Different perspectives on victimology:
The crime of genocide
1941: NSDAP had een vergadering rond de genocide.
Armenia: heeft vroeger ook een genocide plaatsgevonden.
Genocide: destroying an etnic, cultural group in society
1948: Lemkin: the crime of genocide (Sands, 2016)
Genocide convention:
• International crimes/ Crimes against humanity”
• De laatste 20 jaar is de interesse in dit soort misdrijven gestegen.
1947: If this is a man
• Primo Levi: If this is a man, aka Survival in Auschwitz
International legal perspectives?
• Truth commissions → most well-known Truth and Reconciliation Commission
of South Africa
• International Criminal Tribunals of Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s
• Rome-statute 1998
• Supranational victimology/ criminology: very recent → most work in this area
does not refer to victimology
Coined the word victimology? Benjamin Mendelsohn
• Rumanian Lawyer - Coined the word “victimology” (!)
Hans Von Hentig
• German professor
• Fled to the US from Nazi-Germany
• ‘The criminal and his victim’ from 1948
• Seen to be the founder of victimology
Victim precipitation: we focussen ons te veel op de daders van criminaliteit, hierbij
gaat het oog voor de slachtoffers verloren.
• Role of the victim in the event of crime
• Positive: how can (potential) victims protect themselves, see also crime
prevention.
o Bv. Victimological risk analysis: who runs the most risk of being
victimized?
• Negative: should we blame the victim for his or her conduct?
o Bv. Amir: Patterns in Forcible Rape (1973) - Emphasized the role of
victims of rape in their victimization
Other main issues in criminological victimology:
• Fear of crime
• Impact of victimization on punitiveness: willen mensen strengere straffen?
• Repeat victimization: what do people do, to become victims again?
How do we know these things?
, Answer: crime victim surveys
What is the main purpose of crime victim surveys?
Answer: measure the volume (prevalence and incidence) of crime, including the
“dark number”
Limitations of official statistics:
• The dark number
o Not all crimes are reported or detected by police
o Not all reported crimes are duly recorded
o Many crimes rely on victim reports
o How many crimes remain hidden / how many victims of crime are
there???
• Accuracy
o Differences in / changes in definitions
o Depend on willingness / ability to register
o Can be manipulated → police controls the measure of crime, so they
can make it go down if needed!!
• Difficulties for cross-country comparison and understanding trends
• Lack of variables for further study
All problems solved?
Well no….
• Much depends on the questions asked;
• For instance: prevalence of sexual violence in Belgium
o Pieters et al 2010 → life time prevalence 5,6% women and 0,8% man
o Schapanksy et al 2021 → life time prevalence 81% women and 47%
man
• Why?
• Schapansky et al use BSQ’s: ‘behavior specific questions’: “has anyone kissed
you against your will?/ has anyone undressed you against your will?
• De vraagstelling heeft hier dus veel invloed op de aantallen!
Criminological perspectives
Starting point for criminological perspectives on victimization:
• How much crime is there, and what role do victims play in crime?
• Largely relatively routine forms of crime
• A key issue:
o Difficulties in defining criminal victimization (who gets to define it?)
o Definitions have a big impact on the registered volume of crime!
Social psychological perspectives
Classic experiments in social psychology:
1. Zimbardo: Stanford prison experiment. Proefpersonen warden ingedeeld in
twee groepen: de gevangenen en de guards.
2. Robbers Cave experiment – Sherif
3. Milgram: schokexperiment, obedience study
4. See also Darley’s Bystander effect
Rooted in the desire to try to explain the occurrences in the Second World War:
justice system
Week 1: Introduction
Krantenartikels
Artikel paus: vroeg vergiffenis voor slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik door de kerk.
Artikel vrouw baby reindeer: stalk casus
Artikel Cambodia: cambodian genocide, mensen die mishandeld werden
Introductie
Het woord victim komt van het Latijnse woord victima. Dit betekent een offerbaar dier.
Grafiek risk of victimisation:
Victim blaming = het slachtoffers de schuld geven van wat gebeurd is.
Boek ‘I shall not hate’: man wiens dochters gestorven zijn in de oorlog. Hij bleef
zeggen dat hij geen haat heeft zelfs na deze gebeurtenissen.
Boek ‘Aftermath’ – Susan Brison
See also Brison 1993 (Toledo tekst!)
Illustrating some of the main themes of this course
Excerpt 1:
Auteur van het boek beschrijft haar ervaring van sexual assault. Ze beschrijft
ook de ervaring van de hulpverlening die ze kreeg.
• Importance of different feelings and different emotions
• Which ones did Brison mention? What other ones might be important in the
aftermath of victimisation? Shame, guilt…
• The importance of victims’ experiences with criminal justice actors!
• The manner in which this influences and interacts with the primary experience
of victimisation
• The way others react to victimisation:
o The importance of explanations and sense-making
o The difference/ conflict between the reaction of the social surroundings
and the victim’s experiences
, • Importance of the way people experience their own victimization: the will
create a story about what happened
o “Phenomenology” of victimization
Excerpt 2:
Who do you resemble the most? People will choose the person who isn’t a victim,
even though they look exactly the same. People distance themselves from victims.
This is because they believe that victims must have done something to deserve it!
• ‘Just world theory’
Victimization statistics:
• How do we know that only one in ten rapes are reported?
• Bevragen van slachtofferschap + aangifte bij politie of niet. Is nog steeds een
onderschatting, omdat velen het niet willen vertellen.
The International Crime Victim Survey
• Jan van Dijk (emeritus professor INTERVICT and former policy
maker in the Netherlands and the UN)
• First survey in 1966 in US, from 1972 onwards nationally
• In 1973 in the Netherlands, 1989 ICVS
• Winner of the Stockholm-prize 2012 (sort of Nobelprize for
criminology!)
Typical crime stories: mostly focus on the detectives instead of the victims.
What struck me?
• The conflicting demands of viewing victimisation:
• Sympathy for the victim, distress and aversion for the situation
• Recognition of the need for relief and restoration, but lack of practical abilities
to do so
Excerpt 3:
Hans Von Hentig
• German professor
• Fled to the US from Nazi-Germany
• ‘The criminal and his victim’ from 1948
• Seen to be the founder of victimology
Victim precipitation
• = role of the victim in the event of crime
• Positive: how can (potential) victims protect themselves, see also crime
prevention.
• Negative: should we blame the victim for his or her conduct?
Image we have of victims – old, female people are often perceived as victims rather
than young men. But in reality chances of being a victim are way higher for the young
men.
Ze worden vaker slachtoffers, omdat ze denken dat dit nooit zal gebeuren. Hierom
gaan ze een potentiële situatie waarin ze slachtoffer kunnen worden niet uit de weg.
Dit is gelinkt aan stereotypes. Hoe we slachtoffers percipiëren is belangrijk.
,Soms worden mensen ook bekeken als slachtoffer, maar door anderen dan weer als
aanvaller.
Week 2: Victimology: history and perspectives
Different perspectives on victimology:
The crime of genocide
1941: NSDAP had een vergadering rond de genocide.
Armenia: heeft vroeger ook een genocide plaatsgevonden.
Genocide: destroying an etnic, cultural group in society
1948: Lemkin: the crime of genocide (Sands, 2016)
Genocide convention:
• International crimes/ Crimes against humanity”
• De laatste 20 jaar is de interesse in dit soort misdrijven gestegen.
1947: If this is a man
• Primo Levi: If this is a man, aka Survival in Auschwitz
International legal perspectives?
• Truth commissions → most well-known Truth and Reconciliation Commission
of South Africa
• International Criminal Tribunals of Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s
• Rome-statute 1998
• Supranational victimology/ criminology: very recent → most work in this area
does not refer to victimology
Coined the word victimology? Benjamin Mendelsohn
• Rumanian Lawyer - Coined the word “victimology” (!)
Hans Von Hentig
• German professor
• Fled to the US from Nazi-Germany
• ‘The criminal and his victim’ from 1948
• Seen to be the founder of victimology
Victim precipitation: we focussen ons te veel op de daders van criminaliteit, hierbij
gaat het oog voor de slachtoffers verloren.
• Role of the victim in the event of crime
• Positive: how can (potential) victims protect themselves, see also crime
prevention.
o Bv. Victimological risk analysis: who runs the most risk of being
victimized?
• Negative: should we blame the victim for his or her conduct?
o Bv. Amir: Patterns in Forcible Rape (1973) - Emphasized the role of
victims of rape in their victimization
Other main issues in criminological victimology:
• Fear of crime
• Impact of victimization on punitiveness: willen mensen strengere straffen?
• Repeat victimization: what do people do, to become victims again?
How do we know these things?
, Answer: crime victim surveys
What is the main purpose of crime victim surveys?
Answer: measure the volume (prevalence and incidence) of crime, including the
“dark number”
Limitations of official statistics:
• The dark number
o Not all crimes are reported or detected by police
o Not all reported crimes are duly recorded
o Many crimes rely on victim reports
o How many crimes remain hidden / how many victims of crime are
there???
• Accuracy
o Differences in / changes in definitions
o Depend on willingness / ability to register
o Can be manipulated → police controls the measure of crime, so they
can make it go down if needed!!
• Difficulties for cross-country comparison and understanding trends
• Lack of variables for further study
All problems solved?
Well no….
• Much depends on the questions asked;
• For instance: prevalence of sexual violence in Belgium
o Pieters et al 2010 → life time prevalence 5,6% women and 0,8% man
o Schapanksy et al 2021 → life time prevalence 81% women and 47%
man
• Why?
• Schapansky et al use BSQ’s: ‘behavior specific questions’: “has anyone kissed
you against your will?/ has anyone undressed you against your will?
• De vraagstelling heeft hier dus veel invloed op de aantallen!
Criminological perspectives
Starting point for criminological perspectives on victimization:
• How much crime is there, and what role do victims play in crime?
• Largely relatively routine forms of crime
• A key issue:
o Difficulties in defining criminal victimization (who gets to define it?)
o Definitions have a big impact on the registered volume of crime!
Social psychological perspectives
Classic experiments in social psychology:
1. Zimbardo: Stanford prison experiment. Proefpersonen warden ingedeeld in
twee groepen: de gevangenen en de guards.
2. Robbers Cave experiment – Sherif
3. Milgram: schokexperiment, obedience study
4. See also Darley’s Bystander effect
Rooted in the desire to try to explain the occurrences in the Second World War:
