Victimization Theories

1. Victimization Theories Victim Precipitation Life Style RAT

2. “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

3. 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?

4. 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

5. 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 victim’s 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

6. 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

7. Victim Precipitation • 60% of cases where women killed their husbands as victim precipitated • 9% of incidents where men killed their wives as victim precipitated

8. Wolfgang’s 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

9. 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)

10. Victim Precipitation and Homicide • 2. The offender interprets the victim’s 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 offender’s opening, responding with increased hostility

11. 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)

12. Amir’s 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 • Offender’s interpretation of actions is what is important – not what victim actually does

13. Provocative dress - active precipitation Female victims contribute to their attacks by provocative dressing/behavior

14. Do you believe in victim precipitation?

15. 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

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

17. 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

18. Lifestyle Theory • Victimization is the function of the victim’s 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?

19. Lifestyle Theory • How to decrease your own victimization?

20. 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

21. 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)

22. 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)

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

24. 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 victim’s home (28%) Schools (5%) Home of friend/relative/neighbor (9%) Dangerous Times and Places for Homicide and Aggravate Assault

25. 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 Victim profile in homicide and aggravated assault Aggravated assault victims Male (68%) White (77%); African american(19%) 16-24 years (17 per 100,000) Never married (13 per 100,000) Divorced/Separated (13 per 100,000) Family income <$7,500 (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)

26. Sociodemographic Characteristics of Offenders Overrepresented for Each Crime Type

27. Time and Place Elements of Crime Profiles

28. Situational Elements of Crime Profiles

29. 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

30. Routine Activity Theory

31. 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

32. 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)

33. 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.

34. 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

35. 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 aren’t wrong, as a protest on a matter of principle, prejudice against certain minority/ethnic groups.

36. The offender profile in burglary • Male (88%) • White (68%), African American (30%) • <25 years old (64%) • Prior arrest record (79%) • Prior felony arrest record (68%) • Little offense specialization

37. Highest <19 years old head of household African American/Latino Income<$15,000 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 >$75,000 Rural/Suburban Owner Live alone Residents for more than 5years Single-family unit The victim profile in household burglary

38. 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

39. 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)

40. 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)

41. 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

42. 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