Victimization Studies as Guides to Action - Some Cautions and Suggestions (From Victim in International Perspective, P 166-188, 1982, Hans Joachim Schneider, ed. - See NCJ-86192)

• NCJ Number: 86202
• Author(s): I Waller
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 23 pages
• Sale Source: Walter de Gruyter & Co
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: West Germany (Former)

Annotation

Criminal victimization studies can contribute to efforts to reduce crime, to orient the police and the courts to public needs, to alleviate the harm from crime, and to increase public feelings of domestic tranquility, and these goals can be achieved when techniques are used to guide action.

Abstract

Criminal victimization studies can contribute to practice when there is a conceptualization of how policy tractable variables can impact on outcome, and there are empirical tests of the extent to which these variables are indeed associated with the outcome. For the latter, the criminal victimization technique must be used in association with other research approaches to triangulate on the same issues. Such victimization studies are affordable compared to the huge investments for national surveys. Such focussed surveys are likely to be more successful if they examine specific crimes rather than crime in general; the broad environment within which the public needs to use the services of the police and the courts, rather than the unique issue of whether crime is not reported; the harm from crime within the context of how the victim experiences the event and knowledge of crisis management; and the issues of domestic tranquility and fear in considerably more depth. Sixty-three notes and 70 references are provided. (Author summary modified)