Victims as Agents: Implications for Victim Services and Crime Prevention (From Victims of Crime, P 167-179, 1997, Robert C. Davis, Arthur J. Lurigio, et al., eds. - See NCJ-167360)

• NCJ Number: 167369
• Author(s): R C Davis; B G Taylor; R M Titus
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 13 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Publication Type: Literature Review
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This discussion of victimization argues that activity theory is a promising way of understanding victimization and that researchers, advocates, and service providers stop thinking of victims as people who were just unlucky, consider the alternative view of victims as agents in criminal incidents, and base their efforts on this concept.

Abstract

The concept of the victim as an integral part of criminal incidents is proving to have significant benefits for victims rather than denigrating them. People who understand how their behavior or characteristics make them vulnerable can begin to shift the odds more in their favor. They cannot change risk factors such as socioeconomic status and gender, but they can change how they travel to and from work, their leisure activities, and similar factors. Activity theory can also look at the sequential nature of criminal events and suggest ways to disrupt the sequences, preferably in their earlier stages, through modifications in the environment or in victim behavior. This approach is already being incorporated in school-based conflict resolution programs and programs to reduce domestic violence. In addition, victim assistance programs offer the ideal vehicle for introducing crime prevention messages, although these programs have generally not educated victims about crime prevention. Future possibilities include the development of self-assessments of victimization risk similar to those now used for heart disease. 69 references