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WHY EMPHASIZE RESEARCH? As a branch of social science that closely focuses on how people behave and react, victimology must be research oriented. Yet, a criticism that often is voiced is, “Why spend all that time and money trying to establish what everyone already knows? The answer is that research is always necessary because “common […]

Concerning everyday life: ■ A Pulitzer Prize–winning conservative commentator (Will, 1998, p. 42) titled his syndicated column opposing the Clinton administration’s antismoking campaign as “President feeds the culture of victimology.” ■ One journalist (Parker, 1999, p. B10) even insisted that “Americans are fed up with twentieth-century victimology.” B O X 1.2 (Continued) 16 CH APT

Concerning academia and life on college campuses: ■ A columnist (Seebach, 1999, p. 2B) berated liberal pro- fessors for producing college grads whom employers would reject because the students were “experts only in victimology or oppression studies.” ■ A political analyst (MacDonald, 2007) interpreted the selection of a new university president as evidence that “Harvard

Concerning courtroom strategies: ■ A news magazine columnist (Leo, 2002) took a swipe at certain lawsuits: “Yes, everybody is a victim now, but some breakthroughs in victimology are more noteworthy than others. The year’s best example was the trio of supersize teens who sued McDonald’s, claiming the burger chain made them fat by enticing them

Concerning (culture wars): ■ In his syndicated column, a leading conservative parti- san (Buckley, 1994, p. 30a) condemned the thinking of the 1960s Woodstock generation: “The countercultural music is the perfect accompaniment for the culture of sexual self-indulgence, of exhibitionism, of crime and illegitimacy, and ethnic rancor and victimology.”  Place Your Order Here!

Concerning international relations: ■ A former Soviet intelligence officer (Pacepa, 2005) denounced the United Nations as a breeding ground for “a virulent strain of hatred for America, grown from the bacteria of Communism, anti-Semitism, nationalism, jin- goism, and victimology.” ■ A prominent commentator (Brooks, 2006a) wrote about the public’s perception of the Middle East: “What

Concerning race and ethnic relations: ■ An author of a book about race relations called a well- known reverend and civil rights activist a “professional victimologist” (see Dreher, 2001). ■ A former governor of Colorado (Lamm, 2004) warned that a plot to “destroy America” through immigration and multiculturalism would include the following strat- egy: “establish

Concerning heterosexual/homosexual relations: ■ In a newspaper opinion piece about the controversy surrounding homosexuals serving in the military, the author (Sullivan, 1993, p. A21) observed, “The effect that ending the ban could have on the gay community is to embolden the forces of responsibility and integration and weaken the impulses of victimology and despair.… A

What were these commentators thinking when they issued these sweeping denunciations of what they branded as victimology? Why is this rela- tively new academic discipline being singled out for such harsh criticisms? Evidently, those who condemn what they label “victimology” are railing at something other than scientific research focused on people harmed by criminals. The

  SOURCES OF BIAS THAT THWART OBJECTIVITY To sum up the arguments presented in earlier sec- tions, when choosing projects to research and when gathering and interpreting data, victimologists must put aside their personal political orientations toward W H A T I S V I CT I M O LO G Y ? 11 9781337027786,