Victimology

Victimology is the study of people who hurt others, and people who are hurt by others. Its subjects are bullies, rapists, molesters, batterers, gang leaders, terrorists, hate crime perpetrators, armed robbers, and their victims.

These are hardly the people that we like to think of populating schools or businesses. So why study them in developing business or educational products?

Both schools and businesses include some of these people. Both include many others who are their victims. And both are places where less dramatic, minor aggression causes big problems, and where good social relationships make a major difference between success and failure.
The experience of victimisation results in increasing fear and the spread of this fear and suspicion in the community.

Closely related to victimology are the concepts of method of approach, method of attack and risk assessment. If we know details of the victims' personalities (i.e. they may be naturally cautious), then we may be able to determine, in conjunction with an analysis of the crime scene, how they were initially approached by the offender. The same will apply for the way they were attacked and overpowered. If this information is not distinguishable through the crime scene, then an analysis of the victims' overall risk, that is, the chances of them becoming a victim, may be of some help. If we examine this along with the risks the offender was willing to take to acquire a certain victim, then we will have an overall picture of who the victim was and what drove the offender to choose this particular person as a victim.
While im reading some articles, Brent Turvey once quoted "In the rush to examine a criminal's behavior, it is not difficult to become distracted by the dangling carrot of that criminal's potential characteristics and forget about the value of understanding his victims"
There are three main issues that can be provided through victimology and these are

• context,

• connections, and

• investigative direction (Turvey).

Using the above case, it would have been possible to provide investigative direction in that the police should look for a male who had prior access to the properties, may have been employed by the Housing Commission, and was probably employed in a profession such as a painter, builder, lawn-mower or general maintenance man.The other kinds of links that may be provided between the offender and victim include work colleagues, geographic links (such as a neighbor), hobby related links (sports clubs), or social links (victim met the offender in a bar). The number of possible links is endless, so a good victimology is essential to narrow this down.

1. The method of approach is a term that refers to the offender's way of getting close to his victims (Turvey). It is useful to examine as it may provide many clues about the offender, such as his social skills, physical build, and ability to manipulate and charm. There are generally three methods of approach, described as con, surprise and blitz. These may occur singularly, or in conjunction with one of the other methods such as a con/blitz or surprise/blitz combination.
2. The method of attack refers to the offender's mechanisms for initially overpowering a victim once he has made his approach (Turvey). It is generally not appropriate to use the terms "con" and "surprise" here, as they are not really suited to describing attacks.The method of attack is probably best described in relation to the degree of force used and the presence of any weapons and their role in the attack. The attack may range from mild (such as verbal threats) to severe (overwhelming physical assault with the excessive use of a weapon).
3. Risk assessment involves determining the risk of a particular person becoming a victim of crime. Occasionally we will hear reports about violent crime stating that the perpetrator had gone to great lengths to acquire the victim. In other cases, we may hear that the perpetrator has acquired a victim of opportunity. Perhaps in this last instance, something that the victim had done, or was involved in, had elevated their risk of becoming a victim of that crime.
   

As a conclusion, the study of victimology also includes the "culture of victimhood," wherein the self-professed "victim," reveling in his status of victimhood, goes about proclaiming that self-created victimhood throughout a community in order to salve his low self-esteem by winning the sympathy of professionals and peers.
Regarding this articles,some references i made are from

• Turvey, B. E. (1999). Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis.
• Holmes, R., & Holmes, S. (1996). Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool (2nd ed.).
• Douglas, J. E., Burgess, A. W., Burgess, A. G., & Ressler, R. K. (1992). Crime Classification Manual: A Standard System for Investigating and Classifying Violent Crimes.
• Mr.Wayne Petherick which he lectures in Media and Crime, Crime and Deviance, Criminal Profiling, Advanced Behavioural Evidence Analysis, Theories of Crime and the Criminal Justice System.
• Jo Goodey, Victims and Victimology,Research, Policy and Practice(2004)