Transcript The Cultural Imagery of Victimization

Background on Victimization
Newer Focus on Criminology (1970s)
Motivated by:
1. Concerns about accuracy (validity) of traditional
sources of data.
2. Influence of Humanistic (including feminist) viewpoints
*Important to consider victims experiences – the first
200 years of criminology was focused solely on
offenders.
Dark Figure Cont.
Dark Figure of Crime
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)
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
Reporting Practices
Reporting Practices Cont.
Background on Victimization
Chances (Risk) of Victimization vary by:
Gender
Race
Age
Income (SES)
Victim-Offender relationship
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
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
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
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)
Cultural Imagery of Crime Victims
• The victimization of women is a new
social problem – concepts such as …
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Domestic abuse
Spousal assault
Sexual harassment
Date rape
Stalking
All are very new concepts - only
developed in the last 30-40 years or
less.
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 women’s victimization
experiences is increasing.
“Discovery” of such crimes is good politically
and helps researchers/policy-makers address
the problem.
Cultural Imagery of Female Victims
Social meanings of womanhood and femininity
condone violence towards ♀ by ♂
Social understanding of women’s victimization
also relies on a number of myths
1. Rarity of victimization
2. Fault lies with the victim (♀)
3. Victimization is a shameful event
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
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-GrowingViolent/dp/1594200750/sr=81/qid=1158686064/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-22903686498435?ie=UTF8&s=books
• ♀ 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”
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
Fear of Crime
Paradox of Fear:
Those most fearful supposedly have the least amount
of risk (♀ & elderly)
Why?
1. Awareness of extent and frequency of ♀
victimization risk is recent or non-existent
2. Nature of ♀ victimization is qualitatively different
1. Fear of crime is really fear of rape
Problems with this – minimizes other types of violence (Assault,
stalking, harassment, etc.)
2. Most fear is directed toward public sphere threats, though most
violence is in the private sphere
3. Culture encourages ♀ to be fearful: it is part of
doing gender the socially approved way
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 R&G2)
– 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 Karmen’s
Victim-Blaming approach
– Kinds of women approach
– Reassuring to most people b/c it limits responsibility to the victim
Female Victimization
Karmen’s 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, Gov’t, 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
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.
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 sociallygiven gender power
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)
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