Crime Victims: An Introduction to Victimology

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Prepared by Emily Berthelot, University of Arkansas at Little Rock ©

2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 

CHAPTER FIVE THE ONGOING CONTROVERSY OVER SHARED RESPONSIBILITY

1. To understand the distinctions between victim facilitation,

precipitation, and provocation.

2. To be able to apply the concepts of victim facilitation, victim

blaming, and victim defending to burglary, automobile theft,

and identity theft.

3. To be able to apply the concepts of victim precipitation,

victim provocation, victim blaming, victim defending, and

system blaming to murder and robbery.

4. To realize what is at stake in the debate between victim

blamers and victim defenders.

5. To be able to see the institutional roots of crime, which

overshadow the victim’s role.

 

 

 

Learning Objectives

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6. To become familiar with the competing theories that attempt to

explain why some groups suffer higher victimization rates than

others.

7. To recognize how the issue of shared responsibility impacts the

operations of the criminal justice system.

8. To debate the appropriate role of risk management and risk

reduction strategies in everyday life.

9. To appreciate the difference between crime prevention and

victimization prevention.

 

Learning Objectives

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Victim’s Contribution To The Crime

Problem

 Shared Responsibility— certain victims as

well as criminals did something wrong.

 Theories

 Duet Frame of Reference—Von Hentig, 1941

 Penal Couple—Mendelsohn, 1956

 Doer-Sufferer Relationship—Ellenberger, 1955

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Shared Responsibility

Repeat victims, chronic victims, and victim

careers: Learning from past mistakes?

 Are these individuals making the same

mistakes over and over again?

 Clouded judgment due to drinking

 Failing to safeguard personal property

 Isolating self from bystanders who could intervene

 Spending time with dangerous individuals

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Frequency of Shared Responsibility for

Violent Crimes

Victim’s Levels of Responsibility

 Completely innocent victims cannot be blamed for

what happened to them. They reasonably reduced

risks, no negligence or passive indifference.

 Victims of property crimes often harden their targets with

security devices and alarms.

 Victim is totally responsible when there is no

offender—victim may pose as offender and commit

fraud.

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Victim Blaming vs. Victim Defending

 Victim Blaming Characterization

 Argument that victims bear some responsibility along with their offender if facilitation, precipitation, or provocation of the event occurred.

 Victim Defending Characterization

 Whether it is accurate or fair to hold the targeted individual accountable for own losses or injuries inflicted by the wrongdoer.

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Victim Blaming vs. Victim Defending

 Victim Blaming

 ―Just World‖ Outlook—People get what they deserve.

 Bad things happen to evil characters and good things

happen to good people.

 Personal Accountability—Basic doctrine of U.S. legal

system that encourages victim blaming explanations.

 Crime-conscious individuals should review their lifestyles

and routines to increase personal safety.

Victim blaming is the view of majority of offenders.

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Victim Blaming vs. Victim Defending

Victim Defending—Rejects the premise that

victims are partly at fault.

 Victim defender’s criticisms of victim blamers:  Victim blaming overstates victim’s

involvement/carelessness/shared responsibility.

 Overstates events of victim facilitation, precipitation or

provocation.

 Exhorting people to be more cautious and vigilant is

not an adequate solution.

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Shared Responsibility Issues

 Murder: ―…victim is often major contributor…‖ (Wolfgang, 1958)

 Rape: ―…’virtuous’ rape victim is not always the innocent and passive party.‖ (Amir, 1971)

 Theft: ―Victims cause crime in the sense that they set up the opportunity for the crime to be committed.‖ (Jeffrey, 1971)

 Burglary: ―…understand the extent to which a victim vicariously contributes to or precipitates a break-in.‖ (Waller and Okihiro, 1978)

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Victim Blaming vs. Victim Defending

 See Box 5.2: ―Early Criticisms of the Notion of Shared Responsibility‖

 Two tendencies with victim defending regarding who or what is to be faulted:

1. Offender blaming: do not shift any blame away from offender onto the victim.

2. System blaming: behaviors of both parties influenced by the social environment ; neither the victim nor the offender is to blame.

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System Blaming

 Linked with victim defending

If the lawbreaker is viewed as a product of

his or her environment, and the victim is too,

then the actions of both parties have been

influenced by the agents of socialization—

parental input, peer group pressure, subcultural

prescriptions, school experiences, media images,

religion

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Shared Responsibility

 Facilitation—Victims carelessly and inadvertently make it easier for a thief to steal (least serious).

 Precipitation—Victim significantly contributes to the violent outbreak.

 Provocation—Worse than precipitation; victim more directly responsible for the crime (most serious).

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Victim Facilitation and Auto Theft

 ―Is it the careless who end up carless?‖

 Most likely victim—under age 25, apt.

dweller, urban inner-city, African

Americans and Hispanic Americans, low-

income

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Trends in

Motor Vehicle

Theft Rates,

United States,

1973–2013

NOTE: UCR figures

include thefts of

taxis, buses, trucks,

and other

commercial vehicles.

Victim Facilitation and Auto Theft

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Victim Facilitation and Auto Theft

 Victim blaming focuses on the proportion

of motorists with bad habits (i.e.

carelessness about locks and keys).

 Victim defending focuses on majority of

motorists who did nothing wrong.

 Teenagers are no longer #1 in stealing

cars—organized car rings/chop shops

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Typology of Shared Responsibility

 Auto Theft: Conscientiously Resisting Victims

Conventionally Cautious Victims

 

Carelessly Facilitating Victims

 

Precipitative Initiators

Provocative Conspirators

Fabricating Simulators

 

} 75%

} 15%

} 10% © 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

Victim Facilitation and Identity Theft

 Identity Theft—Unauthorized

appropriation of personal information

Names, addresses, date of birth, etc.

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Victim Precipitation and Provocation

Subintentional death those who got killed

played contributory roles in their deaths by

exercising poor judgment, taking excessive risks,

or pursuing a self-destructive lifestyle (Allen,

1980).

 justifiable homicide if the security officer

resorted to deadly force in self-defense.

 Suicide by cop (Klinger, 2001).

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Frequency of Shared Responsibility

 Homicide—person who died was the first to resort to force: 22%

 Aggravated Assault—seriously injured first to use force or offensive action (fighting words): 14%

 Armed Robberies—victim did not reasonably handle money, jewelry or valuables: 11%

 Forcible Rapes—woman first agreed to sexual relations or invited through gestures, but then retracted before the act: 4%

Study conducted by National Commission on

the Causes and Prevention of Violence

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System Blaming

Victim-blaming and victim-defending arguments

bridge the gap between theoretical propositions

and abstractions and how people genuinely think

and act.

 These arguments get caught up in the details of cases

ignoring the social forces that shape both criminals

and victims.

 Whenever partisans of the two perspectives clash,

they inadvertently let the system and culture off the

hook. © 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

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System Blaming Arguments

 Homicide: glorification of violence in the media as a

source of entertainment, conflict resolution, and

policy-making.

 Robbery: gulf between the well-off and the poor,

and the over-importance of material possessions.

 Burglary: organized nature of fencing as an incentive

to thievery

 Identity Theft: numerous data breaches expose

personal data to thieves regardless of efforts by

customers

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Laws and Law Enforcement

 Nearly all states have passed laws to compel

organizations that maintain databanks to notify

people put at risk when a breach of security

takes place.

 Many law enforcement agencies still lack

experts in forensic computing and remain behind

the curve when it comes to detecting intrusions,

figuring out who did it, and gathering evidence

that will stand up in court.

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Laws and Law Enforcement

 Problems undermining law enforcement

efforts in fighting identity theft:  Many officers lack training and agencies lack

resources to provide adequate response.

 Multi-jurisdictional complications undercut an

agency’s commitment to follow through.

 Law enforcement agencies stymied as many

instances not reported to police (sometimes not

even the victim is aware of the crime).

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Victim Facilitation and ID Theft

 Risk Reduction Strategies

 Lock up computer, desktop, laptop

 Shred pre-approved credit card invitations

 Discreetly discard receipts and ATM info

 Devise clever passwords

 Never give Social Security number to unknown

person

 Box 5.5 provides additional preventative measures

and red flags for identity theft. © 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

Legal Importance of Determining

Responsibility

 Responsibility rests on judgments that are subject to challenges and criticisms.

 Whether the victim facilitated, precipitated or provoked, an offender is considered responsible by police, prosecutors, juries, judges, compensation boards, insurance examiners, and politicians.

 It is an issue at many stages of the CJ process, restitution consideration, civil lawsuits, and insurance settlements.

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.