NCJ Number
80216
Date Published
1981
Length
243 pages
Annotation
This report presents eight papers on victim-related research that were commissioned as part of a project to develop a research agenda in victimology for the National Institute of Justice's Office of Research Programs. The report is introduced by a summary and analysis of these papers and the proceedings of a victimology workshop held on March 10-11, 1980.
Abstract
Several of the eight papers and much of the workshop discussion were concerned with the causes of victimization and the critical dimensions of a theory or model of victimization. The lifestyle/exposure model takes the position that the probability of victimization varies according to certain demographic characteristics, lifestyles, and related exposures to risk. Another paper examines multiple victimization and analyzes six contributory factors in proneness to victimization, namely: precipitation, facilitation, vulnerability, opportunity, attractiveness, and impunity. Data from a study of self-reported victimization provides evidence that victims of violent assaults are more often involved in official and self-reported crime and have more often committed a serious assault than nonvictims. A paper on victim-offender dynamics in specific violent crimes finds that, depending on whether data from victimization surveys or police records are used, some dramatically different results are obtained, mainly because attempted or uncompleted crimes are much less likely to be reported to the police. Additional papers discuss types of behavior that shape and are shaped by victim-related experience (precautionary or risk-taking behaviors that are part of people's lifestyles and daily routines, dynamic behaviors that are part of a victimization and can shape the nature of the event or its outcome, and crime-prevention behaviors). Other papers consider the consequences of victimization, a model of the fear of crime, and the social meaning of a crime for the victim and the rest of society. The workshop recommends that a research program in basic victimology address the needs for alternative methods and data sources; better indicators of the phenomena being studied; longitudinal research to explore reciprocal relationships between behavior and experience; and expanded theoretical concepts about causes of victimization, its nature, and consequences. Diagrams, graphs, tables, footnotes, and references for individual papers are provided. The sessions of the victimology research agenda development workshop are appended. For separate papers, see NCJ 76276-83. (Author summary modified)