LinksParadigms and Paradoxes of Victimology
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/proceedings/27/elias.pdf
Elias provides a strong condemnation of the current state of victimology. Despite the growth of the intellectual discipline, he maintains that levels of victimisation around the world have increased. He argues that victimology has been coopted by a particular political agenda, that of law and order, which does not work in the best interests of most victims and survivors. He calls for a radical shift in attention away from victims of crime to victims in general, from the construction of symbolic policies to the implementation of tangible ones and from a manipulation of punishment to the construction of positive reinforcements.
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Conflicts of victims' interests and offenders' rights in the criminal justice system : a European pe
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/proceedings/27/groenhuijsen.pdf
Groenhuijsen describes the 1994 proceedings of the European Forum for Victims Services at Falkirk in Scotland, where an attempt was made to define victims' rights in the context of those of the offender. The Forum agreed that the emancipation of the victim is not intended to be at the expense of the rights of the offender in the penal process. He refutes the notion of a zero sum game and argues that in some cases the rights of offenders and victims may coincide. He opposes changes to the criminal trial to make the victim a third party and a direct adversary of the defendant.
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Preventing peer victimisation in schools
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/proceedings/27/rigby.pdf
Rigby provides a theoretical overview of the trend towards victimisation of children at the hands of schoolyard "bullies". He contends that schoolyard violence is often assumed to be part of growing up. Consequently the seriousness of the problem is often understated. He outlines several strategies to deal with incidents of bullying.
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Crime and victim surveys
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/proceedings/27/vandijk.pdf
Van Dijk presents an overview of the historical development and some of the findings of the two International Crime Surveys which have been conducted. In seeking an understanding of victimisation, the surveys explore the needs of victims as well as their attitudes towards sentencing and their satisfaction with police work. The author concludes that the image of a vengeful victim is fallacious. He reports that victims are not unhappy with noncustodial alternatives in some situations. Victims may, in fact, be seen as allies for governments who wish to sponsor improved situational and community based crime prevention strategies.
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Group work with victims of crime : mutual aid in practice
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/proceedings/27/oliphant.pdf
The Victims of Crime Service in South Australia designs programs to assist people who have been victims of crime, using group work as an important element in their package of services. One of the major group work programs is a group for women whose children have been sexually abused. This paper describes the group and attempts to make some of the connections between the practice and the theories that underpin it.
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Preventing criminal victimisation : the case for an intersectoral response to victimisation : a Sout
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/proceedings/27/hunt.pdf
Hunt subscribes to a multi agency approach to preventing crime. He warns that a lack of cooperation between government and nongovernment agencies can obstruct crime prevention efforts. Consequently, agencies should focus their efforts on the identification and development of common purposes and functions. He concludes with a list of key ingredients for crime prevention based on his experience in South Australia.
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The Prevalence and Consequences of Child Victimization.
http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/fs000179.txt
Preliminary findings from a study of 4,023 adolescents and their parents indicate a significant number of today's youthful population have been victims of sexual and physical abuse and have personally witnessed incidents of violence against others. For many, consequences of these experiences include Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and drug and alcohol abuse. The study is part of the National Survey of Adolescents, a household survey sponsored by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and conducted by the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Carolina.
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The Dutch victim guidelines and their impact on victim satisfaction
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/proceedings/27/wemmers.pdf
Wemmers reports on a survey designed to measure the impact of the introduction of the 1986 Dutch Victim Guidelines on the treatment of victims by police and criminal justice agencies in that country. She concludes that the consideration displayed by the authorities towards the victim goes much further towards satisfying victims than securing the outcomes desired by the victim. Victims appear far more likely to express dissatisfaction with the police failing to keep them informed than with the police failing to solve the case. Police are perceived as more effective in implementing the guidelines than prosecutors. (Abridged version of paper)
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The effect of interview method and response rate on victim survey crime rates
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/proceedings/27/stangeland.pdf
Stangeland reports on the effects of methodology on the results of a victim survey in southern Spain. His survey technique involved interviewing two independent groups about their victimisation experience, using either face to face or telephone methods. In the telephone interviews he obtained a better response rate, while the face to face interviews showed higher crime rates. He concludes there is good reason to be suspicious of research that attempts to compare findings that derive from different data collection techniques.
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The implications of victim-oriented developments in the criminal justice system for female victims
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/proceedings/27/warner.pdf
Warner describes several victim oriented developments which have impacted on women. Changes to the law and procedure in the area of rape, domestic violence and homicide have modified rules in such a way as to minimise the chance of guilty parties being acquitted. She suggests offenders' rights have been adversely affected by these changes but the old rules provided too many opportunities for injustice to occur to assaulted women.
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Victim impact statements in South Australia
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/proceedings/27/erez.pdf
This article presents the results of evaluation studies of victim impact statements in South Australia. It covers their implications for the role of victims in the criminal justice process and the effects of victim impact statements on the system. The first study examines the implementation of victim impact statements through interviews with the legal profession, a survey of crime victims and an analysis of sentencing outcomes in the higher courts; and discusses the impact of such statements on victim satisfaction and sentencing. In the second study the attitudes of police towards victim impact statements, and the role of the police in the preparation of victim impact statements, are examined before and after their introduction.
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Preventing re-victimisation : the South Australian experience
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/proceedings/27/paterson.pdf
This paper describes some of the basic requirements of systems that set out to meet victims' needs in ways that prevent revictimisation. It details traps for the unwary in coordinating a victims of crime agency. The author warns that agencies need to build bridges to other professionals, police, courts, corrections and academics in order to prevent revictimisation and restore self determination to those who have become victims of crime.
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Towards a new millennium in victim assistance
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/proceedings/27/young.pdf
If victims' services are to be coordinated in accordance with human rights principles, they must build on four basic elements: "compassion" that spreads beyond traditional victim services; "community" that seeks to overcome isolation and fear; "character" that increases the accountability of the victim organisation itself; and "courage" to translate knowledge into action.
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Compensating crime victims within New Zealand's no fault accident compensation scheme : the advantag
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/proceedings/27/miller.pdf
New Zealand has a comprehensive accident compensation scheme which covers victims of crime as well as victims of accidents. Miller outlines the New Zealand scheme and some of its advantages and disadvantages. He also describes two other victim initiatives: a Criminal Justice Assistance Reimbursement Scheme which has been introduced by the Government to provide some compensation for those who have been victimised and suffer loss of property or earnings; and a scheme which provides counselling for secondary victims such as the families of murder victims.
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Attitudes to victims : issues for medicine, the law and society
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/proceedings/27/mcfarlane.pdf
McFarlane acknowledges the part played by political as well as social forces in the increasing interest in the effects of victimisation. He notes with concern the ambivalence in modern societies to the rights of the weak, the injured and the disenfranchised. Allied to this, he believes, is the phenomenon that those in power tend to blame victims for their conditions. Victim service providers frequently fail to recognise their own preconceived prejudices when dealing with victims.
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Victim-offender reconciliation with adult offenders in Germany
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/proceedings/27/hartmann.pdf
Criminologists and politicians in Germany have accepted victim offender reconciliation as a means of resolving crime and consequently determining sentence. The "WAAGE Hannover" described in this paper is an example of a pilot victim offender reconciliation program for adult perpetrators which has been integrated into the criminal justice system. Hartmann warns, however, that an intransigent prosecutorial attitude can impede efforts to resolve conflict and stabilise the victim offender circumstance. She asserts that criminal justice practitioners as well as the participants must want the process to work if restorative justice is to occur.
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Civil Legal Remedies for Crime Victims.
http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/clr.txt
This publication provides a broad overview of civil remedies options available to crime victims. Its subject matter was expertly developed and first presented nationwide by the National Victim Center, recipient of an OVC grant award in 1990-92 to produce the manual, Legal Remedies for Crime Victims Against Perpetrators: Basic Principles, and to conduct a series of regional conferences.
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1999 National Victim Assistance Academy
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/assist/nvaa99/
The National Victim Assistance Academy is a university-based foundation level course of study in victim assistance and victimology that was developed through a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime to a coordinated team of co-sponsors: VALOR, the Victims' Assistance Legal Organization, Inc.; California State University-Fresno; and the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Carolina.
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The Extent and Costs of Crime Victimization: A New Look.
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/costcrim.pdf
Crime exacts a heavy toll--on governments, on society at large, and especially on its victims. The cost of crime has two dimensions: a dollar amount calculated by adding up property losses, productivity losses, and medical bills, and an amount less easily quantifiable because it takes the forms of pain, emotional trauma, and risk of death from victimization. Just how much social resources are drained has been uncertain; previous studies have been able to estimate some of the short-term costs attendant on victimization, but long-term estimates have been incomplete. The research summarized here adds in the long-term costs and the intangibles of pain, suffering, and risk of death.
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Revictimization: Reducing the Heat on Hot Victims
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/revictim.pdf
Highly prized is the truly productive crime prevention strategy, one that lightens the load on an overworked criminal justice system and, more importantly, reduces the number of victims. But to prevent crimes -- especially in hot spots (high-crime areas) -- police must determine where and when crimes are likely to occur. Drawing
primarily on data collected in the United Kingdom, this Research in Action underscores why a focal point for effective crime prevention is the hot dot, the victim who repeatedly suffers crime.
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