sign in sign up
<<
Home , Victimology

112TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSE VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS

THE VITAL ROLE OF IN THE REHABILITATION OF OFFENDERS AND THEIR REINTEGRATION INTO

Ezzat A. Fattah*

I. INTRODUCTION alike for factual and systematic information about victims. It goes This paper is about a relatively new and without saying that the study and the not very well known discipline called understanding of the phenomenon of crime victimology. The logical starting point is will never be complete unless the victims to see what victimology is all about, to are included in the explanatory models. No briefly trace its beginnings, its historical valid theory of criminal behaviour can evolution, and its present state. I will afford to ignore the victim. To try to do so address three major questions that are would be an attempt to explain a dynamic highly relevant to the subject-matter of this and interactionist form of human training course. These are: behaviour in a unilateral, uni-dimensional and static manner. This is why the study (1) Why is a good knowledge of of the victim is, and will always remain, victimology indispensable for an integral part of . better understanding the offender and the offence? II. WHAT IS VICTIMOLOGY? (2) Why is a good knowledge of victimology absolutely essential If criminology is the science of crime and for positively changing offenders’ criminal behaviour then, for the sake of attitudes and behaviour? simplification, we can say that victimology (3) What new and exciting is the science of victims and victimization. possibilities does victimology Theoretical victimology is the study of offer for the rehabilitation of crime victims, their characteristics, their offenders and their successful relationship to, and their interactions, with reintegration into society? their victimizers, their role, and their actual contribution to the genesis of the Victimology is a very young discipline, crime. It is also the study of the impact of much younger than its parent discipline: crime on victims, in particular, the criminology. Victimology is only fifty years traumatic effects of victimization, victims’ old but it is neither a fad nor a fashion, it response to victimization, and the coping is a scientific reality that has imposed and mechanisms they use for healing and affirmed itself. Its impact on, and its recovery. Applied victimology is the contribution to, criminology have been application of knowledge acquired from the significant. Victimological research fills an study and research on victims and enormous gap in our knowledge about the victimization in practice to help and assist phenomenon of crime. It satisfies a need those victimized by crime and prevent deeply felt by researchers and practitioners victimization.

* Professor Emeritus, School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, Canada.

71 RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 56

III. A BRIEF HISTORY OF undesirable result is designated as the VICTIMOLOGY criminal act, and the actor as the responsible criminal. The various Early victimological notions were degrees and levels of stimulation or developed not by criminologist or response, the intricate play of sociologist but by poets, writers and interacting forces, is scarcely taken novelists. The first systematic treatment into consideration in our legal of victims of crime appeared in 1948 in distinctions, which must be simple Hans von Hentig’s book ‘The Criminal and and workable. His Victim’. In the fourth part of the book, under the provocative title ‘the Victim’s Elsewhere von Hentig points out that: Contribution to the Genesis of the Crime,’ von Henting criticized the static The law considers certain results and unidimensional study of the offender which the final moves which lead to them. had dominated criminology and suggested Here it makes a clear-cut distinction in its place a new dynamic and dyadic between the one who does, and the one approach that pays equal attention to the who suffers. Looking into the genesis criminal and the victim. Von Hentig had of the situation, in a considerable earlier treated the topic in a paper number of cases, we meet a victim who published in the Journal of consents tacitly, co-operates, conspires and Criminology in 1940. In it, he noted or provokes. The victim is one of the that: causative elements. (p.436) It is true, there are many criminal Von Hentig insisted that many crime deeds with little or no contribution on victims contribute to their own the part of the injured individual. victimization, be it by inciting or provoking ...On the other hand, we can the criminal or by creating or fostering a frequently observe a real mutuality in situation likely to lead to the commission the connection of perpetrator and of the crime. Other pioneers in victimology, victim, killer and killed, duper and who firmly believed that victims may duped. Although this reciprocal consciously or unconsciously play a casual operation is one of the most curious role, outlined many of the forms this phenomena of criminal life, it has contribution can take: negligence, escaped the attention of socio- carelessness, recklessness, imprudence, pathology. and so forth. They pointed out that the victim’s role could be a motivational one In his book, von Hentig (1948:438) is (attracting, arousing, inducing, inciting) or critical of the legal distinction between a functional one (provoking, precipitating, offenders and victims and the criteria used triggering, facilitating, participating) by the criminal law to make such (Fattah, 1991). attributions: Von Hentig’s book was followed by a Most are directed against a number of theoretical studies that dealt specific individual, his life or with victim types, victim-offender property, his sexual self- relationships, and the role victims play in determination. For practical reasons, certain kinds of crime. The book also the final open manifestation of human provided an impetus for several empirical motor force which precedes a socially studies that devoted special attention to the

72 112TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSE VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS victims of specific offences. probably have been evident all along. Such omissions occur continually. The term victimology was coined in 1949 They are an ineluctable part of any by an American psychiatrist, Frederick discipline, a consequence of the truth Wertham, who used it for the first time in marked by Burke when he said that his book ‘The Show of Violence’. Wertham ‘a way of seeing is always a way of wrote: not seeing.’ The price of organizing, specializing and accumulating The victim is the forgotten knowledge about any area is a man. With sensational discussions on systematic neglect of the other matters the abnormal psychology of the thrown out of focus and beyond the murderer, we have failed to emphasize margins. Precisely because the unprotectedness of the victim and criminology is an empirically-driven the complacency of the authorities. discipline, it has tended to ignore One cannot understand the those things that do not bear the name psychology of the murderer if one does of crime, criminals and criminal not understand the of the . victim. What we need is a science victimology. (p.259) IV. WHY VICTIMOLOGY Since the dawn of scientific criminology, During the early years of victimology, criminologists have tried to find out why literature on crime victims remained some individuals become criminals while relatively small when compared to that on others do not. They conducted countless criminology. During the 1980’s, however, studies to discover whether criminals are a great spate of important books and different in any respect from non-criminals. articles marked the coming of age of An equally interesting and thought- victimology (Rock, 1994). At present, it is provoking question is ‘Why do some fair to maintain that the study of crime individuals become victims of crime while victims has become an integral part of others do not?’. Is criminal victimization a criminology. random occurrence? Is it due simply to chance factors, misfortune, or bad luck? Do The need for criminology to thoroughly victims of crime constitute a representative study the victims of crime may today sample, an unbiased cross-section of the appear obvious and axiomatic. And it may general population? Do victims of crime seem rather surprising that such obvious differ in any way from non-victims? How need has escaped the attention of do offenders select their targets; how do criminologists for over a century. But it is they pick their victims? There are many not rare for social scientists to miss the- other questions for which research is obvious. This point is well made by Rock seeking answers. The following are just a (1994, pxi) who points out: few examples: Even criminology and the sociology of (1) Why are certain individuals or - disciplines concentrated groups of individuals more most squarely on the analysis of frequently victimized than crime, criminals and others? Why are certain targets - tended somehow to obliterate the (individuals, households, victim for a very long while, failing businesses, etc) repeatedly to see what, in retrospect, should

73 RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 56

victimized? How can the entirety and in all its complexity, equal differential risks and rates of attention has to be paid to the criminal and victimization be explained? their victim. There are several reasons that render the study of crime victims (2) Are certain persons (or targets) essential, indeed, indispensable, for a more prone and more vulnerable better understanding of the phenomenon to victimization than others, and of crime (Fattah, 1991): if so, why? What is the nature of this proneness; what are the (1) Motives for criminal behaviour do elements of this vulnerability? not develop in a vacuum (von Hentig, 1948). They come into (3) Are there born victims, being through drives and predestined victims, predisposed responses, reactions and victims? Are there recidivist interactions, attitudes and victims? Are there victim counter attitudes. In many cases, stereotypes just as there are the victim is involved consciously criminal stereotypes? or unconsciously in the motivational process, as well as (4) Are there specific characteristics in the process, of mental or specific behaviours that reasoning or rationalization that enhance the risks and chances of the criminal engages in prior to criminal victimization, that are the commission of the crime responsible for, or conducive to, (Fattah, 1976). In some becoming a victim? And if so, instances, the motives for the what are these characteristics criminal act develop around a and these behaviours? specific victim. An examination of the place the victim occupies (5) Is there such a thing as victim- or the role the victim plays in invited, victim-induced, victim- these processes is necessary to precipitated, victim-facilitated understand why the crime was criminality? Do some victims committed and why a particular promote, provoke, or trigger their target was chosen. own victimization? Do potential victims emit non-verbal signals, (2) The commission of a crime is the signalling their vulnerability to outcome of a process where many would-be assailants through factors are at work. In most gestures, posture and cases, crime is not an action but movements? a reaction (or an overreaction) to external and environmental These questions and many others raise stimuli. Some of these stimuli a number of issues and research topics that emanate from the victim. The are quite different from those that have victim is an important element of been the focus of mainstream criminology. the environment and of the Although the scientific study of the criminogenic situation. criminal is more than a century old, the systematic study of the victim is still in its (3) Often, the criminal act is not an infancy. And yet, it seems axiomatic that isolated gesture but the to analyse the crime phenomenon in its denouement of a long or brief

74 112TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSE VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS

interaction with the victim. In The traits approach either such cases, it is not possible to ignores or deliberately minimizes understand the act fully without the importance of situational analysing the chain of factors in actualizing or interactions that led to its triggering criminal behaviour. perpetration. It is scientifically The study of victims offers great unsound to examine and analyse promise for transforming the offender’s act in isolation from etiological criminology from the dynamic forces that have static, one-sided study of the prepared, influenced, qualities and attributes of the conditioned, or determined it, or offender into a dynamic, to dissociate it from the situational approach that views motivational and situational criminal behaviour not as a processes that led to its unilateral action but as the commission. outcome of dynamic processes of interaction. (4) Current theories of criminal and deviant behaviour, whether (6) As Anttila (1974) points out, the attempting to explain study of the victim has a general or association, offer only static informational value. It provides explanations. Since criminal information on the frequency and behaviour, like other forms of patterns of victimization, thus human behaviour, is dynamic, it making possible the can be explained only through a measurement of risk probabilities dynamic approach, where the and the establishment of risk offender, the act, and the victim categories (high, low, medium). It are inseparable elements of a also provides valuable total situation that conditions the information on proneness to dialectic of the victimizing victimization, of behaviour (Fattah, 1976). victimization, response to victimization, consequences and (5) The traits approach, seeking the impact of victimization. Such genesis of criminal behaviour in knowledge is essential for the the characteristics and attributes formulation of a rational criminal of the offender, is simplistic. policy, for the evaluation of crime Theories of offenders’ attributes, prevention strategies, and for personalities, or social taking social action aimed at background do not explain why protecting vulnerable targets, other individuals who have the increasing safety, and improving same traits or personality type or the quality of life. who grow up in identical or very similar conditions do not commit (7) The victim has a strong impact crimes or do not persist in a on criminal justice decisions, criminal career. They fail to particularly those of the explain why the offender and the . In most cases, it committed the crime in a is the victim who decides whether particular situation, at a given or not to mobilize the criminal moment, against a specific victim. justice system by reporting or not

75 RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 56

reporting the offence. (9) Modern criminology is paying Furthermore, the characteristics, more attention to the concept attitude and behaviour of the opportunity (see Mayhew et al., victims, and their relationship to 1976). The commission of many the offender, have a significant crimes is believed to be largely a bearing upon the decision of the function of the opportunities to police to proceed in a formal or commit those crimes. an informal way (see Black, Opportunities, in turn, are 1970). In the latter case, victim- viewed as being greatly related factors can greatly affect influenced by the behaviour of the final outcome. The study of potential victims. The collective the victim leads not only to a behaviour of potential crime better understanding of the victims may have a strong impact functioning of the criminal justice on crime rates, and variations in system, but also to improving the those rates may be explained, at decision-making process. least partially, through Enhancing victims’ involvement differences or changes in victim in the process and establishing behaviour. For this reason, a the modalities of such better understanding of the involvement require a better attitudes and behaviour of understanding of the role victims victims holds great promise for currently play in criminal justice. crime prevention. Victim-based prevention strategies have (8) To better fulfil society’s several advantages over offender- obligations to the victims of crime based ones. The former aims at - in order to help, assist, and hardening the targets, making make the victim whole again - it the commission of crimes more is necessary to gain a thorough difficult and less profitable. The knowledge of the consequences role potential victims are called and impact of the crime on those upon to play in this who are victimized. Moreover, an environmental/situational adequate knowledge of the approach is a primary one. various needs of victims of different types of crime is a (10) The medieval paradigm of prerequisite for setting up ‘’ seems to have efficient victim services, victim reached its terminal phase and assistance, and compensation attempts are already underway to programs. A better have it replaced by another understanding of victims’ paradigm of ‘.’ perceptions of, and attitudes to, Restorative justice is based on the the criminal justice system, their principles of mediation, reasons for not reporting conciliation, restitution and victimization and refusal or compensation. Its primary aim unwillingness to co-operate with is healing, not . In a the system, are essential to restorative justice system, the improving attitudes and victim ceases to be a secondary enhancing co-operation. or peripheral player and assumes an active role. He/she becomes a

76 112TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSE VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS

full party in the process. The escalate (Felson and Steadman, study of the impact of pp.59-60); victimization on the victim, the attitudes and the needs of the (b) A non-negligible part of violence and victim are thus essential to a is victim precipitated system of restorative justice (Wolfgang, 1958). In such cases, the (Fattah, 1995). violent response is more a function of the precipitating behaviour of the V. THE INADEQUACY OF THE victim and the “situational DISPOSITIONAL THEORIES OF determinants” (Felson and CRIMINALITY Steadman, 1983) than it is a function of the characteristics and the Criminological theories that stress background of the respondent. individual traits or offender pathology fail miserably when the task at hand is to Another shortcoming of the “positivist” explain the temporal and spatial patterns approach is the static way in which it views of crime, regional, provincial, intercity and the personality traits and character intracity variations in crime rates, or the attributes believed to be responsible for changes in those rates over time. Theories criminal behaviour. Traits such as seeking the genesis of criminal behaviour aggressiveness, callousness, and in the abnormality or the psychopathology dishonesty are neither constant nor of the offender ignore the dynamic forces absolute and, thus alone have very little, that determine, condition, shape or if any, explanatory value. Some individuals influence the offender’s behaviour in a become aggressive only when under given situation. Not only do they fail to extreme stress, have consumed alcohol, or explain why many of those who share when provoked. Others may use violence offenders’ abnormal or pathological only when they are humiliated or hurt in characteristics do not engage in criminal their vanity. Some men become violent in behaviour, but they also fail to explain why situations where they feel the need to it is that most of those who commit incest assert their maleness. Some people may or family violence (to give just one example) be shy and withdrawn without peer confine their sexual coercion or aggression support, only to become extremely mean strictly within the family and rarely, if ever, when in the presence of, and under are violent or sexually preying against pressure from, their peer group. People others outside the home. The theories do may be scrupulously honest in one not fare any better when it comes to situation and shamelessly dishonest in explaining retaliatory behaviour another. Many “honest” people, whose committed as a reaction to prior moral scruples would never allow them to victimization or in response to provocation cheat or steal from a friend or neighbour, a or precipitation. This is a serious work partner, or in general another human shortcoming because: being, become totally unscrupulous when it is a matter of cheating the government, (a) Retaliation is a key principle in a large corporation, or the general public. violence (Felson and Steadman, 1983, They could be today without inhibitions or p.60; Singer, 1986, pp.61-62) and compunction when it comes to committing because violence is, in many cases, a white collar crime, such as tax or custom situationally determined. In other duty evasion, insurance fraud, price fixing, words, it is the result of events and and so forth (Fattah, 1991). circumstances that cause a conflict to

77 RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 56

An individual’s attitudes to other are not our socialization process and basic indiscriminate. Clifford Olson, a serial institutions to accept doctrines of killer found guilty of slaying eleven individual guilt, sin, culpability, and children in British Columbia, and whom failure, as well as to accept the cult of the the police suspect of having slain even ego, the strength of character, and the more, was proven to be a loving husband stability of personality. According to and affectionate father. Yet he had no Zimbardo, contemporary sympathy or empathy for the several young maintains that we all overestimate the victims he brutally killed to satisfy his extent to which behaviour - be it evil, good, sexual desires. or neutral - is dispositionally controlled, while at the same time we systematically In view of all these serious problems and underestimate the degree to which it is shortcomings, one might wonder why it is situationally controlled (p.159). that theories of criminals’ psychopathology have maintained their popularity for over The manifest and generally a hundred years. The answer is rather acknowledged failure of criminological simple. The attractiveness of the traits/ theories (see above) points to the need for attributes approach lies in its central a new, dynamic approach that shifts the (though faulty) premise that criminal and focus from predisposing factors to delinquents are different from the rest of environmental, situational, triggering, and us. Propagating the view that some catalytic factors; from the notion of individuals are “bad”, “evil”, or in some way propensities and inclinations to the concept abnormal, allows the average citizen to of opportunity. Such a dynamic situational perceive offenders as distinct individuals, approach pays great attention to the as different beings capable of committing contexts in which violent confrontations the terrible crimes that we cannot conceive occur and analyses these confrontations as of ourselves as capable of perpetrating. It situated transactions (Luckenbill, 1977). It is a self-assuring approach that allows the maintains that many crimes are situation- dichotomization of people into the good and specific, context-specific, and target- the bad, the normal and the abnormal, specific. In contrast to the dispositional those who are criminally inclined and those perspective which postulates that the not so inclined. impulses for crime come from within the individual and are manifestations of the VI. THE SHIFT FROM psychopathology of the offender, the DISPOSITIONAL THEORIES TO situational approach looks upon criminal SITUATIONAL THEORIES behaviour as a response to environmental stimuli, stimuli that ineluctably include the Fifty years ago, Sutherland (1947) characteristics and the behaviour of the suggested that explanations deviance and potential victim (Fattah, 1991). crime are either situational or dispositional, and that of the two, The situational approach also pays great situational explanations might be the more attention to victim-offender interactions. important. Extensive research on violence, As Felson and Steadman(1983, pp.59-60) vandalism, and other forms of antisocial point out: behaviour led Zimbardo (1978, p157) to Outcomes of an aggressive interaction challenge the prevailing stereotypes which are not determined by either the locate the source of evil in people. He characteristics or the initial goals of insists that we have been programmed by the participants; rather, they are at

78 112TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSE VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS

least party a function of events that exchanges between the participants prior occur during the incident. In other to the use of physical force. words, violence is in part, situationally determined - the result The situational approach also pays great of events and circumstances that attention to the problems of communication cause a conflict to escalate. in confrontational encounters, such as and situations. It analyses the The situational approach posits that subjective definitions and interpretations many crimes of personal violence, of the participants and see this as a key to particularly spontaneous, impulsive, understanding and explaining their actions unplanned, and unpremeditated ones, are and their responses. It also examines how outcomes of long or brief interactions victims respond to face-to-face between two or more individuals. As such, victimization and the impact of the these crimes cannot be adequately response on the final outcome of the explained by static theories of criminal victimization event (Fattah, 1984; 1991). behaviour that focus on offender The finding of this type of research could characteristics but give no consideration to be used to provide potential victims with the dynamic forces unique to each some guidelines on how to behave in situation. It is these dynamic forces that specific victimization situations to determine, condition, shape or influence minimize the chances of physical injury the offender’s behaviour in that particular and of the crime being completed. situation. The situational approach highlights the inherent weaknesses of VII. THE ROLE VICTIMIZATION dispositional theories of criminal behaviour PLAYS IN OFFENDING: by showing that everyone is capable of INTERCHANGEABLE ROLES OF committing a crime in certain situations, VICTIM AND VICTIMIZER when under certain pressures, in the Those among you who are in daily presence of certain triggering factors. contact with offenders have surely noticed that a large number of them feel and By their very nature, dispositional behave like a victim. They suffer from theories (whether of the biological, heightened and acute feelings of injustice. consitutional, psychological, or sociological These feelings of injustice, this firm variety) dissociate criminal behaviour from conviction that they are victims, whether the dynamic situational forces that trigger, the victimization is real (as it is in many provoke, determine, condition, shape that cases) or perceived, there seems to be little behaviour, or in other ways contribute to doubt that it plays a significant role in its occurrence. Violent behaviour, for offending. example, could hardly be understood without a thorough analysis of the The transformation of victims into transaction that occurs between the victimizers is an intriguing, though largely participants prior to the perpetration of ignored phenomenon. Examples of the violence (Hepburn, 1973). Although this passage from the state of victim to the state might seem axiomatic and despite the of offender abound. Among the most obvious dynamic and interactionist nature obvious are cases of vendetta, vengeance, of , criminological research, reprisal, retalitation, getting even, paying with only a few exceptions, has focused on back, setting of accounts, as well as cases the perpetrator’s characteristics and of self-defence, vigilante action, auto-justice background, and has ignored the verbal

79 RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 56 or taking the law into one’s own hands, to or even simultaneously, from one mention but a few. In all these examples, role to the other. the victimization is a direct contributor to the ensuing aggression, the sine qua non VIII. VICTIMIZAION AS for it. Although this phenomenon is as old ANTECEDENT TO VIOLENT as the human race itself, it is only recently BEHAVIOUR that it has attracted some attention, A. From Victim to Offender particularly in cases of battered wives who The importance of victimization as a kill their battering husbands, of abusive causal factor in violent offending becomes parents who were themselves abused as all too evident when keeping in mind the children, of rapists and other sexual fact that retaliations is a key ingredient in predators who had been sexually molested violence (Felson and Steadman, 1983), that or assaulted during their childhood. New revenge is the most prevalent motive for terms such as “the cycle of violence”, the use of force. Gratuitous violence is the “intergenerational abuse” were coined to exception rather than the rule. Violence describe this curious tendency of human in most instances is an expression of a beings to subject others the same pain and grievance, a response to an attack, injury, anguish to which they had been personally or provocation. As Black (1983) points out, subjected or to inflict upon others the same violence is a mode of conflict management victimizations they had suffered. resembling the modes used in traditional which have little or no formal law. The phenomenon of role reversal raises three important issues: Homicide, for example, is rarely predatory in nature. Relatively few (1) There is a close link between are committed for gain or sexual victimization and offending gratification. In the vast majority of cases behaviour; they are the two sides the killing is a reaction (or rather an of the same coin. Hence it is overreaction) to some from of victimization: impossible to gain a true the lover reacting to being cheated on or understanding of one if we ignore abandoned, the victim of adultery avenging the other. the offended honour, the drug dealer retaliating against the police informer, the (2) The victim and offender hot-blooded young male stabbing the friend populations are not, as commonly who got his sister pregnant, the landowner believed, two distinct and shooting the trespasser, the double-crossed mutually exclusive populations. gang member applying his own brand of They are homogeneous and justice, the rape victim attempting to overlap to a large extent. incapacitate the attacker, the drunk Yesterday’s victims are often responding to an insult, threat or physical today’s offenders, and today’s . offenders are frequently the victims of tomorrow. When aggression is met with aggression, when violence is countered with violence, (3) The roles of victim and victimizer the roles are simply reversed. The initial are not fixed, assigned, or static. aggressor becomes the victim and the They are dynamic, mutable, and initial victim ends up being the victimizer. interchangeable. The same Labels are applied not on the basis of the individual can move successively,

80 112TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSE VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS original role but on the final outcome. The a collection of firearms, one of which was violent response, though defined as ‘crime’ stolen from him. Sometime later , he broke by the law, is perfectly legitimate in the into a firearms shop and stole some eyes of the perpetrator who perceives their firearms. His mother, breaking down in retaliation as a justiciary act, as a rightful tears over her son’s conduct, could not reprisal. understand how such an honest boy, who was from a well-to-do family, working, and The observed link between victimization well considered by everyone, could do such and offending is not the least surprising. a thing. The sense of being victim, whether the victimization is real or perceived, whether In addition to concrete feelings of direct or vicarious, whether personal or victimization resulting from a specific collective, provides not only the incident or incidents in which the person motivations and justifications for was actually victimized, individuals or offending, but also the necessary groups may have sentiments of injustice rationalizations and neutralization that and a vague sense of victimization make it possible for the potential unrelated to any specific event(s). In many delinquent to overcome whatever formal offenses against property, resentment over and informal controls may stand in the way economic exploitation and social injustices of the offending behaviour, including the serves as a means of auto-legitimation. delinquent’s moral inhibitions, religious Many thieves, professional and occasional, convictions, the threat of punishment and tend to justify their delinquent behaviour so forth. These motivations and by citing social injustices and by justifications are capable of transforming contrasting the scandalous wealth of the the victim into a ruthless victimizer. Cases upper social-classes with their own misery of store or house owners who, once and poverty. White-collar tax evaders victimized, sit waiting with a firearm in convince themselves that the tax system hand for the next robber, burglar, or thief, is unfair as it victimized and penalized the in order to welcome the victimizer with a hard-working, like themselves, while hail of bullets, have occurred with allowing many others to pay less or no increasing frequency in the past few years. taxes. Cressey (1953) discovered that But these are just the extreme examples perceived injustice and the sense of being of this transformation. In schools, it is a victimized play an important role in the common experience to find children whose cases of embezzlement, trust violations, books, articles, or supplies have been stolen and one may add corruption. This may by other children taking revenge by take the form of feeling underpaid or stealing the same or similar things from overworked, or of feeling unfairly treated their school mates. Some youthful and in some other way involving finances. adult car owners who have had some piece Cressey points out that it is not the fact of or part, such as a hubcap or mirror, stolen, being maltreated that is important, if such do not report their victimization to the a fact can be established. Rather, it is the police, but instead, “help themselves” to the fact that the individual feels maltreated, same part from a similar car. In doing so while, at the same time, for some reason, they feel they are only righting the wrong feeling obligated to continue in the service done to them. of the organization.

Debuyst and Joos (1971) relate the story Feelings of injustice and of victimization of a seventeen-year-old boy, Raoul, who had play a crucial role in the acts of political

81 RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 56 terrorists and of other minority groups who risk of victimization (p.120,126). They have been historically the targets of further found that offence activity - violence, maltreatment, and exploitation. whether of a violent or a minor deviance, It is true that offending is, in many such as drinking or drug use - directly instances, a reaction to, or a consequence increases the risk of personal victimization. of, victimization, then it is easy to understand why it is that punishment The inter-relationship between quite often fails in preventing the offending and victimization was reported repetition of the behaviour being punished. in many other studies. Singer (1981) found There can be no doubt that for those that cohort members who were shot or offenders who have been victimized, stabbed were involved more frequently in punishment can only be seen as an added official and self-reported criminal activity. victimization, it can only aggravate the His findings were corroborated by Savitz, problem that led to offending in the first Lalli, and Rosen (1977). The same pattern place. Expressions such as “getting even”, was observed in England by Sparks, Genn “taking it out on society” exemplify the deep and Dodd (1977). Gottfredson (1984) resentment and frustration felt by discovered that for persons with at least offenders who already perceive themselves, one self-reported violence offence, the rightly or wrongly, as victims, and who are likelihood of personal victimization was deprived of their liberty as a means of seven times the likelihood of personal punishment. victimization for persons reporting no self- reported violent offences. As mentioned earlier, offenders whose violence is a retaliation against some from Johnson et al. (1973) followed up all of victimization view their behaviour as victims of gunshot and stab wounds perfectly legitimate, and are bound admitted to the City of Austin Hospital in therefore to perceive their punishment as Texas during two years and found that 75% unjust and unwarranted. If victimization of the male victims had a criminal record, is an important factor in offending, and I and 54% had a jail record. Canadian strongly believe it is, then one very effective homicide statistics for 1991 (Juristat, 1992) way of preventing crime, particularly reveal that almost half of homicide victims violent crime, would be to reduce the (45%) have a criminal record. And in an incidence of victimization, exploitation and American study of gunshot victims, Paul discrimination. Friday (personal communication, March 1995) found that 71% of the victims had B. From Offender to Victim their own criminal histories. Not only is there a strong link between victimization and offending, but there is Of the 92 assault victims in the hospital- also a close link between offending and based sample interviewed by Cretney and victimization. Involvement in criminal, Davis (1995, p32), 24 (26%) told the illegal or deviant activity greatly enhances researchers that they themselves had a the chance of becoming a victim. Sampson criminal record, while 16 (17%) had at least and Lauristen (1990) found a significant one previous conviction for assault. Other relationship between the risk of offences committed by the sample of victimization and involvement in violence, ‘victims’ included: shoplifting; ; vandalism, and theft offending. In other robbery with violence; and possession and words, persons who engage in criminal dealing in drugs. offending sharply increase their overall

82 112TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSE VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS

IX. OFFENDERS’ ATTITUDES TO property, are harmful actions. They cause THEIR VICTIMS AND HOW TO physical injury, material loss, psychological CHANGE THESE ATTITUDES trauma or a combination of all three. Feelings of guilt associated with Offenders’ attitudes to their victims is international victimizations are stronger an extremely important area of study in than those evoked by negligent criminology, victimology and . victimization. This is so because such attitudes often play a crucial role in the motivational processes Most international victimizations leading to the victimization, and a decisive involve the deliberate infliction of pain and role in the process of selecting the victim. upon a fellow human being. For example, in the case of genocide, of While a small minority of victimizers may terrorist activities, of acts of war, the fit the psychiatric label of the heartless, potential targets are defined and perceived callous, unfeeling “psychopath”, the as the enemy that has to be attacked, majority are not completely insensitive, exterminated or annihilated. Enemies apathetic, or impassible and are not totally evoke no sympathy, pity or compassion. devoid of the human feelings of pity and empathy. Thus, unless the victimizer The same is equally true in conventional desensitizes themself in advance, the crimes. Rapists, for instance, have victimization is bound to create moral devalued images of women. They are sex tension and to elicit feelings of guilt, , objects, they are to be used for one’s remorse, reproach in the perpetrator. Since pleasure and then discarded or even killed. the source of these negative feelings is the In many other offences, the victim is seen pain and suffering the victimization will simply as a means to an end. Sutherland cause to the victim, negating this pain and (1937) insists that professional thieves suffering can be an effective means of have no consideration whatsoever towards desensitization. To do so, the victimizer the victims whose wealth they are trying can use one or more of several techniques to steal. They think of their victims like of desensitization. These include the fishermen think of a place to fish or hunters denial, reification, depersonalization of the of a place to hunt. victim, the denial of injury, blaming the victim, devaluating or denigrating the The slang words often used by offenders victim, and so forth. to describe their victims: whore, slut, faggot, sucker, etc, betray not only their The desensitization process in which the utter lack of respect, but also the victimizer engages themself prior to the contemptuous attitude they have vis a vis commission of the act explains better than the victim. The mental process by which “”, “moral perversion” or the victim is denied, blamed, denigrated, “emotional indifference” why certain devalued, depersonalized may be referred offenders show no sense of guilt, remorse to as the desensitization process. or repentance after having committed brutal and cruel acts. It explains why A. The Desensitization Process certain killers, while exhibiting extreme One of the most important techniques cruelty, brutality and callousness toward of offender rehabilitation is to counter what their victim, show tender love and we call in victimology ‘the desensitization compassion for others, even for animals. In process’. Criminal victimizations, whether a case studied by the author (Fattah, 1971) directed at the victim’s person or his/her the murderer, after savagely killing his

83 RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 56 victim and robbing the house, took utmost is possible that a diminished care to feed the victim’s dog and cat, and awareness of the victim plays an even left them enough food for several days, important part in determining for fear that nobody would come to the whether or not this process is set in scene of the crime for some time. motion. (p.668)

There are various techniques that The idea of stealing from or cheating the offenders use to desensitize themselves to government or a large organization raises the harm, pain and suffering they are fewer moral scruples than the idea of inflicting on their victims. One of the most cheating a person or stealing from a family. common techniques of desensitization is to deny the victim, to mentally turn him/her A third technique is ‘blaming the victim’. into an object, or to try to depersonalize Once victimizers are able to convince and dehumanize the victim. themselves that the victim has done them wrong, that he or she is guilty of some Another technique of desensitization injustice, they can rid themselves entirely often used by victimizers in their attempt of any compassion for that victim and of to shield themselves against the victim’s any sense of personal culpability. By plight, to ease their conscience, and to free blaming the victim and transforming him themselves of any feeling of guilt, is the or her into a person deserving to suffer, denial of injury. It is a common technique victimizers are able to go ahead with the among rapists before and during the act. victimizaion without conceiving of But it is also common in property themselves as criminals and while victimization as well. Impersonal, non- shielding themselves against post- specific and intangible victims, such as the victimization dissonance. The government, large corporations, and establishment of the victim’s guilt organizations, are considered by many as beforehand, whether the guilt is real or appropriate targets for victimization. imagined, acts as an anaesthetic on the Victimizing them is subject to fewer (if any) conscience of the potential victimizers, moral restraints and arouses less guilt than enabling them to destroy or injure the victimization directed against a personal, victim without pity or empathy. identifiable victim. The impersonal and diffuse character of the victim and its Although blaming the victim is a intangibility evoke little moral resistance common and often-used technique of in the person contemplating the autolegitimation, neutralization and victimization. Sykes and Matza (1975) desensitization, it is not a process of wrote: international distortion. In most cases, victimizers are actually convinced of their Insofar as the victim is physically victim’s guilt. Nowhere is this more evident absent, unknown, or a vague than in crimes of passion, in political abstraction (as is often the case in crimes, and in the crimes of paranoiacs. delinquent acts committed against Crimes of passion are characterized almost property), the awareness of the invariably by a justiciary attitude on the victim’s existence is weakened. part of the offender. Internalized norms and anticipations of the reactions of others must Blaming the victim is also the dominant somehow be activated, if they are to feature of crimes motivated by revenge, the serve as guides for behaviour; and it typical example of which is the vendetta.

84 112TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSE VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS

Here the victimization is seen as a and the possibility of justifying the act are legitimate reprisal, a rightful form of undoubtedly important factors in the choice retaliation. The chain reactions resulting of the victim. from the use of this type of legimitation is the development or perpetuation of a In cases of property crime, the subculture of violence. dishonesty of the victim seems to be seen in the same way as the lifestyle of the Devaluation of the victim is yet another prostitute. The businessman is defined as technique of desensitization. In an attempt a “monopolistic miser,” or as a “dishonest to desensitize themselves to the victim’s merchant” who cheat customers and plight, victimizers often attribute inferior therefore deserves to be victimized, and the qualities to the victim. They may devalue, illegal act is defined as an act of normal denigrate and derogate the victim’s worth, indignation (Schwendinger and so that the victim appears blameworthy Schwendinger, 1967). The repugnance and deserving of the victimization because toward the victim overcomes any thought of a behaviour (he or she did something of the victim’s right. very bad) or because its their fate as a person (he or she is a bad person). This X. VICTIMOLOGICAL psychological process of devaluating the EXPLANATION OF REOFFENDING victim is not worked out in a logical, Victimological explanations of rational or conscious way (Ryan, 1971). and reoffending are quite simple and more common-sense than science. If The preparation of the criminal act at environmental conditions, if situational, the moral level is done, almost always, with triggering and actualizing factors play an reference to the attributes, personality, important role in offending (and there is attitude, behaviour, and conduct of the overwhelming empirical evidence showing victim. Certain attributes or qualities of that they do), then a released offender, the potential victim may be used to returned to these same conditions and discredit and devaluate him or her in an situations that led to the first offending, effort to present the victim as a legitimiate will have a very high chance of relapsing and deserving target, and to justify the and of committing new offences. The best delinquent act. Attacks on homosexuals treatment and rehabilitation programs in and on prostitutes are often so legitimized. custody cannot be successful unless the Redl and Wineman (1951) found that for environmental conditions to which the certain adolescents, stealing from offender is released have been changed, homosexuals is a perfectly justifiable and and unless the situational, triggering and legitimate act. Property crimes committed actualizing factors have been dealt with. against prostitutes are rationalized in a Changing the conditions, controlling the similar manner. Furthermore, the forcible factors, is generally a much easier and rape of a prostitute is also conceived of as more effective task than the difficult and a legitimate and guiltless act. Their style elusive task of changing the offender’s of life is interpreted as denying the right personality, attitudes or behaviour. After to dispose of their own body as s/he pleases; all, no one, not even the most violent of as if, because s/he sells their body to offenders, is dangerous all the time and whomever pays the price, s/he no longer towards everyone. has the right to protest when someone tries to possess them by force. In such cases, In the vast majority of cases, the attitude toward the potential victim dangerousness is episodical and specific. To

85 RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 56 effectively control it, one only needs to victimization plays in offending, the know the conditions and situations in phenomenon of role reversal, the which the person becomes dangerous, and interchangeable roles of victim and the person or persons against whom the victimizer, is bound to change the views violence or aggression will be directed. As and stereotypes of offenders, help explained earlier, many crimes are context understand the motives for their behaviour, specific, target/victim specific. Because of assist in establishing a rapport with them, this, the violence is usually strictly and thus the possibility of influencing their confined. For example, in most cases of attitudes and behaviour. family violence, the violence is strictly confined to the wife (or the children). In the case of incest, the father or grandfather’s sexual predations are strictly confined to their offspring. If the causes of the behaviour are endogenic (that is located in the individual himself), why is it that they manifest themselves or produce the violent or sexual behaviours only in these specific contexts, against these specific victims?

If the cause of criminal behaviour, as many criminologists claim, is lack of or weakened self-control, then how is it that the person is perfectly able to control their behaviour outside of these contexts and these targets. Good-sounding programs, such as ‘ management’, simply ignore the fact that the individual has no problem controlling their anger outside of the home environment to which the violence is confined.

XI. CONCLUSION Hopefully, this brief and hasty synopsis of victimology has given you an idea of how valuable victimological knowledge could be for those who are involved in generally, or offender rehabilitation in particular. Victimological knowledge is not only essential for understanding the offender and the offence, for positively and successfully influencing the offender’s, attitude and behaviour, but also because it has direct implications and applications for the task of rehabilitation and resocialization. Understanding the role

86