CRIM12-210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Victimisation, Labeling Theory, Conflict Theories
26 Jun 2018
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Some cases receive widespread media why?
Age of victim
Vulnerability of victim
The way a crime is committed
Why a crime is committed
Statue of offender
Evil and why it matters?
Media pick up on particular issues which can be seen to go toward and act being evil
3 emotive agents
oSenselessness
oInnocence
ouniqueness
Definition - Victim
Derived from the Latin :victima" and originally contained the concept of sacrifice
The word victim is not found in the bible but the concept of a person suffering from acts committed by
an aggressor is first case murder is found in bible: Cain and Able
Contemporary terminology
Victim has been expanded to imply a victim of war or accident, or of a scam or identity theft
"Victim" is neither a legal or a scientific term, but according to Medelsohn (1976) as a scientific
concept it can be seen as containing four fundamental criteria:
oThe nature of the determinant that causes the suffering (physical, psychological or both)
oThe social character of the suffering
oThe importance of the social factor
oThe origin of the inferiority complex
Operational definition
A victim of a violent crime can be operationally defined as an individual who has been confronted,
attacked, assaulted, or violated by perceived predator, resulting in short or long term physical and /or
mental injuries as a result.
Problems:
Doesn’t include property crime, financial crime
Issues with the need for violence to be included
Certainty
Equity
Uniformity
Health costs- typologies
Immediate injuries
Visible injuries
Unknown long term physical injuries
Long term catastrophic injuries
Spiritualistic explanations
Supernatural forces interact in the world
Naturalistic explanations:
Classical explanations
Beccaria and the classical school
Proposed reforms to make criminal justice more rational and logical, remove injustice
Value Judgement
Every decision that you make has consequences
Cost benefit analysis
Cant take justice into your own hands (Vigilantism)
Beccaria's Main Principles - Punishment
Social contract and need for punishment
Judges should dispense and not interpret
Seriousness of crime should be measured by social harm (Speeding)
Punishment should not excessive (Death penalty)
Punishment should be prompt
Punishment should be certain
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Punishment should be proportionate
Prevention is better than punishment
oClear social policy ramifications are that humans can be persuaded to change behaviour, if
their decision making process
Positivistic
oThe assumption that human behaviour was influenced, partly perhaps, by uncontrollable
outside
Social structural theories
Have asserted that aspects of the social structure itself cause crime
Robert Merton 1938 credited with the strain theory: strain between learned aspirations and
actual possible achievements cause crime
These theories
Social process
Asserted that it wasn’t so much the social structure as it was the culture and processes within
the structures that account for criminal behaviour
Crime is learned behaviour among those more oriented toward crime
Preventing crime required interfering with learning process
Psychology
Psychology examines individual behaviour
H
Stages od psychosexual development - Freud
ID
Superego
Ego
Control theory why aren't we all criminals?
Answers lies in the bonds people form with one another
Labelling theory: understanding crime is understand the social audience which evaluates some
behaviour as criminal
Some people are seen as criminals whether they are or not is suspect according to this theory (Bikie
Gang)
Social policy of whole approach exiting the 60s is:
Critical Criminology
Evolved from abolishing theory
Humans behave as they do for all the reasons covered thus far but the question is what causes their
behaviors to be designated as crimes?
E.g. some homicide are criminal and others justifiable or excused (as in time of war) (abortion)
Interpretation and social reaction varies considerably
Conflict theory (Sellin 1938): crime is the product of whoever wins the power struggle over the
labeling apparatus
Ex: when one nation conquers another and imposes new law, what was legal yesterday may not be
today
Victimology and its pioneers
Mendelon's six typologies of a victim
1. Completely innocent
2. Minor guilt and responsibility
3. Victim who is equally guilty
4. Victim who is more guilty
5. Exclusively responsible
6. Simulating an imaginary victim
Has Von Hentigs 13 typologies
1. The young
2. The female
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Media pick up on particular issues which can be seen to go toward and act being evil. Derived from the latin :victima" and originally contained the concept of sacrifice. The word victim is not found in the bible but the concept of a person suffering from acts committed by an aggressor is first case murder is found in bible: cain and able. Victim has been expanded to imply a victim of war or accident, or of a scam or identity theft. A victim of a violent crime can be operationally defined as an individual who has been confronted, attacked, assaulted, or violated by perceived predator, resulting in short or long term physical and /or mental injuries as a result. Issues with the need for violence to be included. Proposed reforms to make criminal justice more rational and logical, remove injustice. Cant take justice into your own hands (vigilantism) Seriousness of crime should be measured by social harm (speeding)
