What is resilience, and how can it be measured as a matter of degree?

development of survivorology as an area of concentra- tion within victimology that accentuates the positive, two key concepts need to be operationalized: resiliency (roughly speaking, the ability to rebound after a serious setback) and recovery (basically, regaining control over one’s life, recuperating, restoring, returning to the con- dition the person was in before the crime took place). Once these two concepts of resiliency and recovery are

operationalized as variables whose magnitude can be estimated numerically and not designated simply as a dichotomous all or nothing situation, then different degrees of resilience and rates of recovery need to be investigated for various groups of victims.

The more survivorology is developed, the less victimology will be preoccupied solely with suffer- ing, loss, and negativity (see Box 1.6).

SUMMARY

Victimization is an asymmetrical relationship that is abusive, parasitical, destructive, unfair, and illegal. Offenders harm their victims physically, financially, and emotionally. Until recently, the plight of crime victims was largely overlooked, even by most crim- inologists. When some researchers began to study victims, their initial interest betrayed an antivictim bias: They sought evidence that the victims’ behav- ior before and during the incidents contributed to their own downfall. Since the 1960s, the majority of the social scientists attracted to this new discipline have labored to find ways to ease the suffering of victims and to prevent future incidents. But a com- mitment to strive for objectivity rather than to be

reflexively pro-victim is the best stance to adopt when carrying out research or evaluating the effec- tiveness of policies.

Victimology is best viewed as an area of spe- cialization within criminology. Both criminologists and victimologists seek to be impartial in their roles as social scientists when investigating lawbreaking, its social consequences, and the official responses by the justice system. But much of criminology in the past can be characterized as “offenderology,” so the new focus on those who are on the receiving end of interpersonal violence and theft provides some balance and rounds out any analysis of problems arising from lawbreaking behavior.

B O X 1.6 Questions to Spur the Development of Survivorology

■ How can the concept of “survivor” be operationalized so that it is not too restrictive and yet not too inclusive?

■ What is resilience, and how can it be measured as a matter of degree?

■ What is recovery, and how can it be measured as a matter of degree?

■ Which groups of victims (such as those who have endured repeated beatings, childhood sexual abuse, rapes, shootings, or the loss of a loved one who died violently) have the most success—and the most difficulty—recovering from their ordeals?

■ Which groups of victims show the most resilience in terms of characteristics such as age, sex, race and ethnicity, education, income, and occupation?

■ What forms of social support (such as strong family ties, close bonds with friends, financial reimbursement, gov- ernment programs, individual and group counseling, and camaraderie from a self-help group) improve the prospects for as well as the rate of recovery?

■ What aspects of an individual’s character and which personality traits foster resiliency and recovery?

■ What can crime victims learn about resiliency and recovery from the travails of individuals who endured devastating losses due to political oppression, natural disasters, life-threatening illnesses, and other near- death experiences—and vice-versa.