roy

How Many Vehicle Thefts Were Victim-Facilitated? No intelligent person would put from $1,000 to $5,000 in good money in the street and expect to find it there an hour later, yet that is exactly what a large number of people do when they leave an auto- mobile in the street without locking it. Even more, […]

How Many Burglaries Were Victim-Facilitated? Elderly folks often talk fondly about the “good old days” when they left their doors unlocked. That practice wouldn’t be prudent these days. A residential burglary can be considered to be facilitated if the offender did not need to break into the premises because a homeowner or apart- ment dweller

MISTAKES INDIVIDUALS MAKE: FACILITATION Arguments stressing personal accountability focus on the notions of victim facilitation, precipitation, and provocation. All three of these blameworthy behaviors are derived from the broader theme of shared responsibility. Each concept describes the specific, identifiable, and undesirable actions taken by certain individuals immediately before they were harmed. Provocation is the most

What Is System Blaming? The second tendency is to link victim defending with system blaming, wherein neither the offender nor the victim is the real culprit. If the lawbreaker is viewed as largely a product of his or her environment, B O X 5.2 Early Criticisms of the Notion of Shared Responsibility The concept of

What Is Victim Defending? Victim defending rejects the premise that those who suffer are partly at fault and challenges the recommendation that people who were targeted must change their ways to avoid future incidents. First of all, victim blaming is criticized for overstat- ing the extent to which careless habits, foolhardy actions, attention-grabbing behavior, and

Early Expressions of Support for Inquiries into the Victim(s) Role A real mutuality frequently can be observed in the connection between the perpetrator and the victim, the killer and the killed, the duper and the duped. The vic- tim in many instances leads the evildoer into tempta- tion. The predator is, by varying means, prevailed

WHO OR WHAT IS TO BLAME FOR SPECIFIC INCIDENTS? Since the 1970s, the notion of shared responsibility has become a subject of intense and sometimes bit- ter debate. Some criminologists and victimologists have expressed concern over the implications of studies into mutual interactions and reciprocal influences between the two parties. Those who raised doubts and

THE ENTIRE SPECTRUM OF POSSIBILITIES: RECOGNIZING COMPLETE INNOCENCE AND FULL RESPONSIBILITY A typology is a classification system that aids in the understanding of what a group has in common and how it differs from others. Over the decades, victi- mologists have devised many typologies to try to illustrate the degree of shared responsibility, if any,

REPEAT AND CHRONIC VICTIMS: LEARNING FROM PAST MISTAKES? One day in October, a woman hears someone banging on her front door. She opens it and sees her neighbor, a 21-year-old man, lying on his back. He pleads, “Call 911, I’m dying.” The ambulance rushes the man to a nearby hospital, but he is dead on

PREDICTING THE CHANCES OF BECOMING A VICTIM SOMEDAY: PROJECTING CUMULATIVE RISKS Yearly victimization rates might lull some people into a false sense of security. Annual rates give the impression that crime is a rare event. Only a hand- ful of people out of every thousand fall prey to offenders; most people get through a year