NCJ Number
98166
Journal
Journal of Social Issues Volume: 40 Issue: 1 Dated: (1984) Pages: complete issue
Editor(s)
M S Greenberg,
R B Ruback
Date Published
1984
Length
177 pages
Annotation
Nine papers focus on research and policy implications of three critical stages of criminal victimization: (1) the occurrence of the crime, (2) the involvement of the criminal justice system, and (3) the victim's recovery.
Abstract
The first paper illustrates and explains the important role bystanders can play in controlling crime through intervention and deterrence; it notes that citizens' fear of crime tends to reduce the number of bystanders at any particular potential crime location. The second paper reviews the literature on the influence of indirect victim experiences upon the fear of crime, with attention to why citizens fail to use the mass media as a source of information about personal crime risk. Emotional and cognitive reactions to criminal victimization are reviewed in the third paper, with a focus on the relationship of these reactions to victims' reluctance to report the crime to police. The fourth paper examines how a victim's decision about whether to report the crime to police can be influenced by other people. The relationship between the crime victim, the offender, and the State is placed in historical perspective in the fifth paper by concentrating on a formative period in English law -- the 11th through the 13th centuries. The research reported in the sixth paper shows considerable victim disenchantment with victim compensation programs due to administrative inconvenience and inadequate or no awards. The seventh and eighth papers (1) review the preassault and postassault variables associated with the victim recovery process and (2) promote the usefulness of victim surveys. In the final paper, phenomenological analyses of 50 victims' experiences indicate how criminal victimization undermines victims' sense of social order and community. References accompany each paper.