Society's Attitude to the Victim (From From Crime Policy to Victim Policy, P 31-49, 1986, Ezzat A Fattah, ed. - See NCJ-102547)

• NCJ Number: 102549
• Author(s): P Rock
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 19 pages
• Sale Source: St Martin's Press
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

A society is an abstract concept rather than a specific entity, and statements about society's attitudes are actually reflections of the specific processes used to determine those attitudes.

Abstract

Thus, what is called public opinion is an artifact resulting from the polls conducted for political, administrative, and commercial reasons. Nevertheless, surveys have important effects on political and social conduct. Surveys are not the only collective representations of society's attitudes, however. Journalists, politicians, and novelists also depict the social order. These portrayals commonly present the community as a moral territory and crime and immorality as invasions from outsiders. Over time, however, the perceptions of victims and the responses to them change. In Canada, for example, abused children have only recently begun to be treated as crime victims rather than as subjects for therapeutic intervention by caseworkers. The history of the Canadian national victims initiative shows how society's varying attitudes toward different categories of victims are actually expressing broader political sentiments. 39 reference notes.