Essay on Resolving Problems of Crime Victims (1064 Words)
Providing redress and resolving the problems of crime victims, being the main concern of victimology, it seeks to remove the social confusion by probing into the various areas relating to victims of crime which have hitherto remained more or less neglected. It is necessary to focus on societal reaction to’ law-breaking.
However, victimological studies have to be associated with criminological approaches to crime and criminals because the former is essentially a specialised branch of the latter. The other three sub-fields of criminology being (1) Sociology of law and penology; (2) delinquency; (3) comparative and historical criminology.
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The board contents of victimology as a branch of criminology, may be stated as follows:
1. Victimization;
2. Victim—offender relationship;
3. Victim—criminal justice perspective;
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4. Victim and media;
5. Victims vis-a-vis societal relations;
6. Victims and costs of crime;
7. Compensatory redress for victims.
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Hans Von Hentig (1948) carried out the work of Mendelsohn (1937) further and placed victims in five main categories as follows:—
1. The innocent who fell a victim to crime being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
2. The depressive type who are easy target, being careless and unsuspecting. They mostly contribute to their own injury.
3. The greedy type who are easily duped because of craze for money and easy gain.
4. The ‘wanton type’ who is particularly vulnerable to stresses of life such as juveniles, pregnant women, prostitutes etc.
5. The tormentor type who are the victims of attack from the target of their abuse such as battered women, or those in living- in-relationship.
Ferraro (1995) has pointed out that emotional distress as a result of crime is a recurring theme for all victims of crime. The most common problems affecting most of the victims were psychological, including fear, anxiety, nervousness, self- blame, shame, anger etc. These problems often lead to development of chromic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among the victims.
The effect of victimisation not only results in generating fear in the victim but this fear is spread in the community as well.
The factors and circumstances affecting victimization constantly keep on acquiring different meanings with changes in the structure of society and growing realisation of the complexity of problems involved in crime causation over the years. As said earlier, the idea about the role of victim of crime as a contributory factor in causation of crime is otherwise known as ‘victim precipitation’ or ‘victim blaming’.
However, it is now perceived as a negative approach. Therefore, looking into the ways in which victims contribute to their own victimization which formed a part of search in mid-nineteenth century victimology has now become redundant and obsolete.
The noted Canadian Criminologist Abdel Fattah has classified victims of crime into five major categories as follows:—
(1) Non-participating victims are those who are completely innocent. For example, foeticide, a crime against being born, which is punishable under Sections 315/316 of the Indian Penal Code. Miscarriage, kidnapping, etc. are some other crimes the victims of which fall under this category. Infanticide that is, crime against unborn child, geronticide, i.e., killing of one’s father or mother to get rid of them because of their advanced age etc. are offences the victims of which are non-participating.
(2) Latent victims are those who have fallen a prey to a crime but do not know that they are in any way effected thereby e.g., blackmailing affects several victims but they do not feel its impact or evil effect.
(3) Provocative victims, e.g., victims of dowry death who are provoked by the offender to commit suicide.
(4) Participating victims. The crimes like sati, deodasi, prostitution, cyber-crimes on internet are some of the examples of participating victims.
(5) The defiant or retaliating victims. Certain crimes by their very nature are such that the victim does not readily yield to the offence and retaliates to the extent possible to see that the offence is not committed by the perpetrator, but eventually fails in his effort to avoid the occurrence of crime. The common illustrations are victims of rape, robbery, dacoity, cruelty against women, domestic violence etc.
Yet another classification of victims may be as shown below:—
Benjamin & Masters, through their criminological studies have attributed three factors which generate crime viz. (1) precipitating factors such as being in the wrong place at the wrong time; (2) Attracting factors such as choices, options, life style etc.; and (3) Pre-disposing factors which include all the demographic characteristics of the victims, being female, young, poor, minority, living in squalor, living single, being unemployed and so on.
Victimology of modern time has been greatly affected by the societal influences which recognises the people’s concern about crime and rights of victims. In U.S.A., a number of legislations have been enacted for the protection of victim’s rights and providing them compensatory justice.
In India, the recent judicial trend is to provide relief to the victims by awarding pecuniary damages and ensure their rehabilitation. The state’s concern for the welfare of crime victims is reflected in number of legislative enactments, both at the Centre and State level.
However, the reluctance of victims to report cases to the police remains an issue to be probed in by victimologists. Some of the reasons for non-reporting of crimes are:—
(1) People’s apathy and attitude of indifference;
(2) The effect of crime being insignificant or petty;
(3) Identity of the offender being unknown;
(4) Apprehension of threat or harassment from the culprit;
(5) Social and public indignation, particularly in cases of rape, illegal abortion and other sexual offences;
(6) Considerable loss of time, money in prologed criminal litigation;
(7) Reluctance of witnesses to testify or possibility of their turning hostile;
(8) Lack of faith and confidence in police action.
Needless to say, that apathy of victims to report against the offender encourages criminality. Therefore, victimologists should concentrate the problems which hinder victim’s approach to the agencies of criminal justice system for Redressal of their woes and sufferings.
Since the ultimate end of penal justice is to protect and add to the welfare of the people and society as a whole, victims’ rights should not only be recognised by the State but they should be well protected by the law and victims’ services should be further extended. The emergence of compensatory jurisprudence is indeed a welcome step from the point of view of human rights philosophy.