1.0 INTRODUCTION
In this unit, we shall examine who are victims of crime and the origin of victiminology. It examines the place of the victim in the criminal justice process. Students should be exposed to the different types of victims of crime. This unit will also explore the general profile and vulnerable groups in the victims of crimes.2.0 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this unit, you should be able to:- define who a victim is
- state the origin of victiminology
- identify the vulnerable groups
- establish the general profile
- examine the various types of victims of crimes
- explore the impact of crime on its victims.
3.0 MAIN CONTENT
3.1 Victims of Crimes
The United Nations Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power (1985) defined victims as “persons who individually or collectively have suffered harm including mental injury emotional suffering economic loss or substantial impairment of their fundamental rights through acts or omissions that are in violation of criminal laws operative within member states including those laws prohibiting criminal abuse of power “. The term“victim” also includes where appropriate, the immediate family or dependent of the victim and persons who have suffered harm in intervening to assist people in distress or to prevent victimisation. A victim must have suffered from emotional, psychological, economic and social loss. It can be personal injury, death, loss of personnel and real property. Furthermore, a person is regarded as a victim of crime “regardless of whether the perpetrator is identified, apprehended, prosecuted or convicted and regardless of the familial relationship between the perpetrator and the victim”.
Victiminology is the branch of criminology which is concerned with the scientific study of victims. It is a science of social concern for the victims. Its scope includes the scientific analysis of patterns, causal factors explored in the etiology of the victimisation. It is unfortunate that most criminologists have concentrated on the unidirectional perspective to the study of the offenders only rather than the victims. Von Hentig, in his book “the criminal and his victim”, suggested that certain individuals were ‘victim- prone’. This assessment is based on the characteristics of interactions between the victim and the offender. Marvin Wolfgang also agreed that causation of the victims of crime is precipitated. He defined victim – precipitated offences as those “in which the victim is a direct, position precipitator in the crime”.
Categories of Victims
Different criminologists have classified victims using different approaches. In this unit, we classify victims into five:- Precipitative Victims: These are victims in which the persons act as a direct and positive precipitators is the crime. That is, their actions gave way for the conditions of their victimisation. For example, a female student who expresses indecency in her dressing may invite the trouble of being raped in the night.
- Biologically Weak Victims: These are victims whose physical and mental conditions are impaired. This state of condition makes it easy for the offender to victimise them. This group includes the aged, the handicapped, the child, the insane, imbeciles, etc.
- Victimless Crimes: they are referred to as “crimes without victims”. They are crimes that victimise themselves in the process and they are their own criminals, examples include alcoholism, drug abuse, prostitution, etc.
- Political Victims: these are the victims that suffer in the hands of the ruling class. This came as a result of opposition to the political administration or power. Examples include the late Dele Giwa, the late Gani Fawehinmi, the Niger Delta Militants, etc.
- Socio-Economically Weak Victims: These are victims that are regarded by the larger society as full-fledged members, but are discriminated against. Examples include the economically- disadvantaged, the war refuges, immigrants, the minorities, etc.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1
Who is a victim of crime?3.1.1 General Profiles
According to Hindelang, Gottfredson and Garofolo “Victimisation is not a phenomenon that is uniformly distributed it occurs disproportionately in particular times and places ; it occurs disproportionately by offenders with particular demographic characteristics; it occurs disproportionately under certain circumstances (e.g. according to whether or not the person is alone ); it occurs disproportionately according to the prior relationship between the potential victim and potential offender; and so forth. Because different lifestyles imply different probabilities that individuals will be in particular places, at particular times, under particular circumstances, interacting with kinds of persons, lifestyles affect the probability of victimisation”. (Alemika et al, 2006).With this assertion, we would review the empirical research conducted by CLEEN Foundation on the general profiles of criminal victimization in Nigeria.
- Sexual Violence: Girls and women are the victims of rape in most cases. Criminological literature has demonstrated that rapists and their victims are more likely to be acquaintances and these are likely to take place in the homes of either the victim or offender.
- Socioeconomic and demographic Factors in criminal victimisation: several criminological researches indicate that propensity to victimisation varies by age, gender, and residence. Some of the variations are attributed to the nature of routine activity and life style of different groups, neighbourhood characteristics and differences in the social structure of rural and urban communities.
- Age and criminal victimisation: some researchers have found that younger people are more prone to criminal victimisation, especially assault and other types of violence.
- Gender and criminal victimisation: The literature of criminology has generally revealed that females are less prone to criminal victimisation than their male counterparts. However, women and men are differentially victimised and so also the level of fear of crime and insecurity vary between males and females.
- Regional variations in criminal victimisation: The literature of criminology showed that regions and cities with high concentration of industrial, financial and commercial activities tend to have higher victimisation rates.
- Residence and criminal victimisation: crime varies across neigbourhoods. However, the issue examined here is not victimisation within neigbourhoods but experiences of criminal victimisation of people residing in different neigbourhoods. Residence is employed as an indicator of socioeconomic status.
- Corruption as criminal victimisation: corrupt practices like bribery and extortion are criminal victimisation. Bribery and extortion are wide spread in the country and cause serious socio- economic and political problems. From a survey conducted, the police personnel perceived that the demand for bribe in these institutions is likely to be as follows, PHCN (74.3%), customs officials (67.7%) and Ministry officials (58.4%) and legislators (56.4%).
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2
Identify and explain four types of criminal victimisations.3.1.2 Vulnerable Groups
For a better analysis of the vulnerable groups of the victims of crimes, we categorise the crime victims in term of age, gender, economic, and socio class .Each crime is much related to a particular category. For example, victims of rape are mostly females while the victims of neglect or abuse are children. In general, the most likely victims of crimes are the elderly, women and children. This is because the elderly are physically weak by virtue of age. At the same time, the natural victims of rape are women. This is because they are the weaker sex. They tend to be less violent than men; and they tend to be highly emotional in their relationships with the opposite sex.Children are frequently abused and molested by adults, and like the elderly, they are disadvantaged in terms of age and the ability to defend themselves. Children, particularly female children, in African societiesare vulnerable to all kinds of abuses due to parental exposure petty trading, thereby enabling them to come in contact with individuals capable of molesting them sexually. Such children are forced to “cooperate “with their molesters so as to dispose the goods they trade in, all in an attempt to satisfy the exploiting parents. Such victimisation comes in two ways, from the parents who make them vulnerable and deny them normal life; and from the outside adults who exploit them while in such a difficult situation. (Dambazau,1999). The majority of the victims in ritual killings in Nigeria are women and children. The victims of drug traffickers are usually those who either abuse drug or engage in drug business; the victims of advance fee fraud (419) are business men and; and victims of bank fraud are the depositors.
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