The answers to these queries require careful research by victimologists.
Facilitation, precipitation, and provocation are recognized as the blameworthy actions of specific individuals in particular incidents. However, the data presented in Chapter 4 from the UCR and the NCVS confirmed a widely held belief that certain entire groups of people are more likely than others to be murdered, robbed, assaulted, or to lose their valuables to burglars, car thieves, and other crooks. Why is that? What, if anything, did they do—or fail to do—that caught the attention of criminals? What, if anything, marks them as dif- ferent from the rest of the potential targets in the general population? Which risk factors heighten dangers and make these high-risk demographic groups and their possessions more vulnerable to attack (Dussich, 2011).
Although victimologists cannot agree among themselves about precisely which behaviors and practices increase susceptibility, being singled out definitely does not appear to be a random process, striking people just by chance. When individuals ask, “Why me?” victimologists suggest that the rea- son in most cases goes beyond simply “being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” However, “being at the wrong place at the wrong time” indeed can