NCJ Number
154589
Date Published
1995
Length
281 pages
Annotation
This textbook provides an overview of the scope, nature, and costs of criminal victimization; remedial measures for victims; and issues in particular types of criminal victimization.
Abstract
The first chapter, which focuses on the scope of victimology, discusses the crime victim throughout history, the re-emergence of the victim, empirical studies of victim precipitation, general victimology, and the victim movement. The second chapter examines the extent of victimization and the development of victimization surveys, which have become a key measure of crime and contribute information to the study of victimization. This is followed by a chapter that analyzes the costs of being a crime victim and the additional burdens associated with becoming involved with the criminal justice system. The chapter demonstrates that many victims believe it will be too costly and too painful for them to submit their victimization to a criminal justice system that often ignores or dehumanizes victims. Chapter 4 examines how the criminal justice system responds to victimization, the impact of those responses, and the continuing needs of victims. Five chapters discuss particular forms of criminal victimization, including sexual assault, spouse abuse, child maltreatment, elderly abuse, and homicide. Each of these specific victim groupings has developed its own literature about causes and possible remedies. The book concludes with a view of the changing portfolio of legal rights for crime victims. 12 tables, 45 figures, 651 references, and author and subject indexes