Victimology Definition: Exploring the Five Categories of Victimization
In 1964, Sellin and Wolfgang created a classification of victimology that focused more on the situation a victim is placed in, rather than a person's relationship to other individuals that could have caused them to become a victim. This lead to five different victimization categories. So, what exactly are these five categories of victimization and what do they mean? The first and most straightforward classification is called primary victimization. What this is, is when a person is targeted or chosen specifically to be a victim.
Primary victimization is very evident in todays society with direct attacks focusing on the LGBT and religious communities lately. A great example of this would be crimes that have to do with race, sexuality, and gender. A woman that is raped is primarily victimized - this is because she was chosen with intent, strictly because she was a woman. Then, in the next category, you have secondary victimization. This deals with victims in a less specific manner.
Instead of directly targeting someone, these are crimes that have many victims who are all secondary victims. For example, many people nowadays create fake IPhones and IPads, sell them at cheap prices, and fool massive amounts of people who think they are getting a good deal. This is secondary victimization. Now, there is a third category - called tertiary victimization, which almost everyone is familiar with. Tertiary victimization is when the government victimizes society in some way.
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These crimes can be committed by any level of the government, from the president, all the way down to the mayor of a small town. However, to count as a crime, the situation would have to be somewhat as if that government official was stealing tax money from the tax payers of his or her town, or writing off business checks to his or her own company. These are both great examples of crimes that affect a multitude of people, creating a society of victims.
Mutual victimization is the fourth category, and one that is most prominent in television crime shows. Why? Well, mutual victimization is when two people commit a crime together and then one (or both) say their partner had nothing to do with it - they victimize the other person.
An example of this could be if two people rob a bank and they were both in the bank at the time that one of them shot the clerk. Then, the next day, they both get arrested for robbing the bank but they each have different stories claiming that they both were the ones who shot the clerk and that the other person was just in the car and had nothing to do with it and/or had a smaller, or even bigger, role in the crime itself. And the fifth category of victimization is no victimization.
The reason Sellin and Wolfgang made that the fifth category, or a category at all, is because, "...in certain situations, victimization is difficult to define," according to Lesson 1. There are some cases out there where it is hard to determine the difference between a victim or a perpetrator, therefore, victimization may fall under the fifth category. So, overall, Sellin and Wolfgang created victimization categories according to their best understanding at the time. How can we explain these five categories? Well, they are best understood when applied to everyday situations. Though this classification of victimology was created more than 50 years ago, we can still identify with it today.
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Victimology Definition: Exploring the Five Categories of Victimization. (2023, Jun 28). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/victimology-definition-exploring-the-five-categories-of-victimization/
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