The Cultural Imagery of Victimization

1
Background on Victimization

• Newer Focus on Criminology (1970s)
• Motivated by
• Concerns about accuracy (validity) of traditional
  sources of data.
• Influence of Humanistic (including feminist)
  viewpoints
• Important to consider victims experiences the
  first 200 years of criminology was focused solely
  on offenders.

2
Dark Figure Cont.
3
Dark Figure of Crime
4
Background on Victimization

• National Criminal Victimization Survey (NCVS)
• Representative snapshot of victimization
• Survey Design -Multistage Sample Design
• -90 Response Rate
• -77,000 Households (134,000 Rs)
• Nature and Extent of Crime based on NCVS
• 23.4 million victimizations (2005)
• 2 times the of serious crimes as found by
  police data
• Problems with NCVS?
• Ignores victimless crime
• Reporting problems - (too much/little due to
  memory embarrassment. e.g. Sexual assault)

5
Background on Victimization

• NCVS as a research tool
• Personal victimization data
• Provides information about the characteristics of
  victims allows for group comparisons
• For personal crimes
• May provide info about offender, V/O
  relationship, etc.
• Info usually absent from police data (except
  arrests)
• Household victimization
• Provides info about crimes against property
• Reporting practices
• Why people (fail to) report victimizations
• Ways that research is conducted affects data
  quality

6
Reporting Practices
7
Reporting Practices Cont.
8
Background on Victimization

• Chances (Risk) of Victimization vary by
• Gender
• Race
• Age
• Income (SES)
• Victim-Offender relationship

9
Background on Victimization

• Gender
• Males more likely to be victims of crime
• except sexual assault and rape
• Black men more at risk
• Young men (lt 24) at greater risk
• Men likely to be victims of violence by strangers
• Women likely to be victims of violence by
  acquaintances
• 2003 Violent Victimization (rate per 1,000)
• Male 25.9 Female 19.9
• Public/Private Spheres of victimization
• Importance of victim/offender relationship
• Inter vs. Intra group character of violence
• Significance of data source in documenting
  victimization

10
Background on Victimization

• Race is among the most powerful predictors of
  violent victimization risk.
• Black Males have much greater risk of being
  victims of assault, robbery and homicide than
  others
• Reasons?
• Opportunity Structure of African Americans
  Residential Segregation

11
Background on Victimization

• Age
• Youth more likely to be victims of crime Risk of
  victimization declines with age (negative
  relationship)
• Lifestyles of Youth School Other activities
• Income
• Less affluent more likely to be victims of
  violent crime (Negative relationship)
• Consistent Pattern across gender, age, race
  groups
• Instrumental vs. Expressive Crime

12
Background on Victimization

• Issues
• Intersection of gender, race, class age
• Consequences of Victimization?
• Loss or Cost of personal victimization
• Emotional Suffering
• Fear
• Antisocial Behavior
• Reciprocal nature of offending, victimization,
  contact with the CJS)

13
Cultural Imagery of Crime Victims

• The victimization of women is a new social
  problem concepts such as
• Domestic abuse
• Spousal assault
• Sexual harassment
• Date rape
• Stalking
• All are very new concepts - only developed in the
  last 30-40 years or less.

14
Cultural Imagery of Crime Victims

• Historical Progression
• 1) Nonsexual child abuse,
• 2) Rape by strangers,
• 3) Nonsexual wife abuse,
• 4) Sexual abuse of children
• 5) Sexual wife abuse
• Social awareness of womens victimization
  experiences is increasing.
• Discovery of such crimes is good politically
  and helps researchers/policy-makers address the
  problem.

15
Cultural Imagery of Female Victims

• Social meanings of womanhood and femininity
  condone violence towards ? by ?
• Social understanding of womens victimization
  also relies on a number of myths
• Rarity of victimization
• Fault lies with the victim (?)
• Victimization is a shameful event

16
Danger as an orienting concept (Stanko)

• Danger Peril, uncertainty, risk threat
• Anxiety about crime is part of modern condition
• We live in a Risk society
• Characteristics of risk society
• Technology and surveillance
• Information used to evaluate relative risk
• Accuracy of risk assessments (parole boards)
• We judge people based upon their competence to
  assess risk accurately ties to BLAME
• Consequence crime victims are expected to act
  as if they have control over criminal danger

17
Danger as an orienting concept (Stanko)

• ? Offenders
• Treated as dangerous b/c they threaten
  traditional conceptions about ?s place in
  society and passivity
• Scourge of violent women - Mythical (See Jane
  Hit)
• Criminal violent women are feminist (simply
  b/c they do not conform to female roles)
• http//www.amazon.com/See-Jane-Hit-Growing-Violent
  /dp/1594200750/sr8-1/qid1158686064/refpd_bbs_1/
  002-2290368-6498435?ieUTF8sbooks
• ? Victims
• Violence is framed as something we experience at
  the hands of Beasts
• Reality of victimization is that most of it
  perpetrated by Nice Guys

18
Fear of Crime

• What is the connection between risk of
  victimization and fear of being a victim?
• Criminologists have emphasized the
  irrationality of fear?
• Paradox of Fear
• Those most fearful supposedly have the least
  amount of risk (? elderly)
• NCVS shows ? experienced 1/3 of all violent
  victimizations somewhat lower risk than similar
  ?
• Yet ? are typically 3 times as fearful of crime
  as men

19
Fear of Crime

• Paradox of Fear
• Those most fearful supposedly have the least
  amount of risk (? elderly)
• Why?
• Awareness of extent and frequency of ?
  victimization risk is recent or non-existent
• Nature of ? victimization is qualitatively
  different
• Fear of crime is really fear of rape
• Problems with this minimizes other types of
  violence (Assault, stalking, harassment, etc.)
• Most fear is directed toward public sphere
  threats, though most violence is in the private
  sphere
• Culture encourages ? to be fearful it is part of
  doing gender the socially approved way

20
Fear, Doing Gender Victimization

• Girls/women are expected to be fearful
• Fear is understood as healthy for women
• How?
• NS commentary
• Risk-reduction strategies issues from a
  fairness perspective? (Stanko RG2)
• Female accountability is greater than male
  accountability for predatory male behavior
• Fear is hegemonic for women
• What is the media role in this?
• All of these questions are consistent with
  Karmens Victim-Blaming approach
• Kinds of women approach
• Reassuring to most people b/c it limits
  responsibility to the victim

21
Female Victimization

• Karmens Frameworks Continued
• Kinds of men approach Offender Blaming (what
  many assume is the focus of feminism to blame
  men)
• A more effective feminist approach is to Defend
  Victims
• Focused on questions of Social Justice
• Date Rape, Battering
• Institutional Framework (Sociological)
• Victims and Offenders their patterns of
  interaction are products of institutional
  patterns (Economy, Family, Educ, Govt, etc.)
• Criminal Justice responses are largely
  ineffective in addressing ? victimization
• Assume individual responsibility as key victim
  or offender blaming
• No concern with hetero-patriarchal environment
  that produces new exploitive/abusive men each year

22
Gender Victimization

• Summary Threat of Violence (Danger)
• Vulnerability as a bedrock of gender relations
• Perceptions of power encourage acts of sexual
  violence
• Results in restricted freedom for potential
  targets of sexual violence. Women are
  constrained in their activities, routines, etc.

23
Gender Victimization

• Power and Victimization
• Gender inequality increases the volume of
  violence towards women
• Pattern is evident historically and
  cross-culturally
• Brownmiller (1975) Rape is a means of control of
  women by men. Rape causes increased inequality
• Russell (1984) Rape is an outcome of inequality
• Belknap Proposes a Cycle of female victimization
  gender inequality (reciprocality, p. 213)
• Rape and other acts of crime are expressions of
  socially-given gender power

24
Gender Victimization

• Do sex-workers deserve to be sexually victimized
  by ??
• Our culture wrongly holds women accountable for
  their own victimization
• Premised on a variety of cultural scripts that
  define appropriate feminine behavior
• Violations of appropriate displays of doing
  gender provide the basis for victim-blaming
• Yet appropriate enactment of femininity relies
  upon inequality as well (and thus encourages
  gendered violence)

25
Images of Female Victims

• Tends to privilege certain women
• white, middle class
• Legacy of victimization shows that racial
  minority women and others are more vulnerable in
  the past today
• Slavery/Jim Crow (Legalized Racism) Rape in US
  history
• Natalee Holloway