Explain the strengths and weaknesses of victimization theories while considering their impact on victims.
Victimization is an action of being abused or provoked by another person in order to cause physical or emotional harm to the person. The victim of abuse can either be physically abused or assaulted by a close person known to him or her due to hate of race, color or personal characteristics. Persons of weaker gender are mostly abused. Types of victimization include; stalking, physical assault, sexual harassment, domestic violence, theft and burglary among others. Victimization theories are subset of criminology that aims to study crime and its characteristics. The theories focus on psychological effects of crimes on the victims, the relationship between victims and those who commit crime and the existing relationship between criminal justice and the victims offended (Pitcher & Johnson, 2018).
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Modern theories of victim-ology have been established to explain why some people have high chances of suffering from crime activities more than other people (Meier & Miethe, 2015). The main theories of victim-ology that were invented are lifestyle theory, victim precipitation theory, and deviant place theory. The theories have also been established to have their own strengths and weaknesses according to each theory and how it studies the crime. Fist, lifestyle theory explains that some people may become victims of crime because of their choice of lifestyle. A good example of this situation is where someone may be involved in gambling, or drug and substance abuse. The person becomes an easy victim of crime by a con artist. Other personal habits such as walking alone at night, wearing expensive clothing and jewelry, leaving open doors to strangers and associating with them may highly lead to victimization.
The major advantage of lifestyle theory is that it exposes the persons who are prone to crime or likely to experience criminal victimization. The persons who are famous with high demographic profile are highlighted by lifestyle theory as number one victim of crime. The theory explains clearly that it is the exposure of ones’ to risk that precipitate the person to become a victim of crime such as time spent in public places, night outs, and associating with strangers. The theory states that the person lifestyle exposes one to risky situations where they are likely to suffer when they become a target from criminals who want to jeopardize them. The logic is in connection with demographic characteristics of a person such as person’s wealth and gender among other factors.
Among the identified weakness of the theory is the uneven distribution of criminal victimization across place and time because in real sense the crime can take place anywhere and at any given time. The people involved in crime may not represent the whole population since personal behaviors are different. There are no equal exposure to criminal activities as the target persons have varying degree of exposure with risky places, times and persons they associate with (Pratt & Turanovic, 2016). The impact to the victim based on the theory may be detrimental. People love walking freely without being restrained in the sense that there is someone following them ready to cause harm. Though the theory gives people with high lifestyle a warning by educating them, a feeling of being insecure may exist being of their lifestyle habits.
Victim Precipitation theory suggests that a person characteristics may cause them to get victimized. The person characteristics may include; being from a certain race, sexual orientation, ethnic background, person’s fame that makes others jealous, and property or wealth associated with the person. Other persons of interests are those occupying specific positions in the society, people who oppose or have certain views such as political analysts, and recently promoted persons among others. Such people of specific interests may initiate confrontation that causes harm or injury to them (Lasky, 2019). This is because they are envied with a lot of prejudice from those known to them due to those known attributes.
A major strength of the theory is that it helps to understand the risk factors associated with initial victimization thus assisting to avoid instances of re-victimization. Upon realizing such prudent factors, the victim will seek protection either from the government or those close to the person, since such factors that contribute to becoming a victim are beyond one’s consciousness and cannot change. For example, one cannot change their gender to prevent being attacked thus can only seek protection and guidance. The theory explains how the victim and the offender are connected when the victim is an active participant who precipitates the crime to take place by triggering the offender to act against him or her.
The weakness of the theory is that it blames the victim who is supposed to be innocent in the first place. The victim is blamed as having played part or it is their fault that caused them to be harmed. This is not always the case because some personal characteristics like race, ethnic or gender are beyond ones consciousness. Persons of weaker sex are likely to be harassed yet it is not their fault. Therefore, the theory raises such controversial questions that do not come out clearly.
Impact on victims based on the theory is that victims of abuse carry a cross that they do not deserve. Being hated because of what they rightfully own, the decision they make, where and how they were born should not be factor to precipitate a crime. The theory leaves the victims worried how and why their personal attributes or nature precipitate harm to them.
Deviant place theory presents some overlap with lifestyle theory (Stark, 2017). It explains that a person is more likely to become a victim of crime when he or she gets exposed to some dangerous areas. Further, it states that there is a high possibility of a person walking alone in dark neighborhood being attacked as criminals may be wandering in such areas where crime is common. Nevertheless, there is a high risk of victimization to a person living in areas of low social-economic backgrounds as muggers thrive in such environment where they attack unsuspecting persons of interest. The person becomes a victim because of living in socially disorganized crime areas where they risk being attacked irrespective of their own character or lifestyle (Pitcher & Johnson, 2018).
The advantage of this theory is that it explains clearly that the victim has no direct role to influence crime, but is merely victimized because of living in a bad neighborhood. Individuals likely to get attacked should just avoid such areas and look for safer places to live or just pass in safe streets that have no crime records. Therefore, the theory asserts that the only way to lower risk of victimization, is to move to safe places for a less deviant area with no crime activities.
On weakness of the theory, it suggests that taking safety precautions, only, by moving away from such areas without changing lifestyle will reduce the risk of victimization. However, taking safety precautions may not have much effect as it is the nature of the low social economic areas to experience crime. Failing to change lifestyle may attract offenders even when the victim moves away. As an impact, the theory educates the victims what triggers an attack to them from crime offenders by advising them to stay away from high crime areas. However, the victims are left worried and insecure in areas and places they stay or walk through.
References
Meier, R. F., & Miethe, T. D. (2015). Understanding theories of criminal victimization. Crime and justice , 17 , 459-499.
Pitcher, A. B., & Johnson, S. D. (2018). Exploring theories of victimization using a mathematical model of burglary. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency , 48 (1), 83-109.
Pratt, T. C., & Turanovic, J. J. (2016). Lifestyle and routine activity theories revisited: The importance of “risk” to the study of victimization. Victims & Offenders , 11 (3), 335-354.
Lasky, N. V. (2019). Victim Precipitation Theory. The Encyclopedia of Women and Crime , 1-2.
Stark, R. (2017). Deviant places: A theory of the ecology of crime. Criminology , 25 (4), 893-910.
