NCJ Number
223149
Date Published
2007
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This review of what is known about links between gender and criminal victimization focuses on lessons learned in research thus far about the association between gender and the risk of victimization, gender and the fear of being victimized, and gender and the experience of as well as response to victimization.
Abstract
During the relatively short history of victimology, there have been achievements and several lessons learned about the study of victims and victimology. One lesson is that research should never assume that factors in, the risk for, fear of, experience of, and response to victimization are gender neutral, i.e., that being a male or female is not a significant factor in such analyses. Another lesson learned is that within the studies of male and female victims, there will be variations; i.e., within the behaviors, attitudes, feelings and circumstances of male and female victims, there will be significant differences among the male victims and among the female victims. Research has shown that although gender must be included as a factor to be considered in studies of criminal victimization, gender usually interacts in complex ways with other factors. Gender matters, but sometimes it might matter on a par with class, race, and age. In other cases, it might not matter as much as class, race, and ages. Researchers must therefore guard against a bias toward either minimizing or maximizing gender as a factor in victim research. The multiple factors that compose a person's identity as a male or female within a particular set of racial, cultural, age, social, economic, and other factors that define identity must all be considered and weighed in terms of how they impact the various research findings and analyses. 4 notes and 22 references