Hate Crime Victim, Research Paper Example

Background to the Study

The concept of Victimology is important in providing a lot of information in criminal investigation. In a criminal investigation, it is imperative that the police pay close attention to the victims so that to get accurate profile of the victims and also the eye witness account of what happened. It is also very necessary that the criminal justice system is able to take into account the effects of the crime on the victims. The victims of crime face lots of psychological problems.

Statement of the Problem

The victims have been found to experience a lot of psychological problems as a result of some criminal activity. Some of the issues that victims go through include the perception that the world is against them. It is therefore important that the criminal justice system is able to put into consideration the victims accounts of what happened in determination of such cases (Andrew, 2003).

 Literature review

Victimology is the study of victim or victims of a specific form of offence. Most of the times, in the rush of determine criminal cases; concentration is often given to the criminals’ character at the expense of understanding the injury the victim went through. Victimology therefore involves not only analyzing the victim’s characteristics but also victim profiling (Sebba, 2006). Victimology is important because victims form more than half of the criminal offense and is every much part of the crime as weapons, eye witnesses and crime scene. As a matter of fact, a life victim is the last person to witness a crime and is in a better place to describe the offender’s physical and behavioral characteristics.

In addition, the look at the victim’s background may also provide relevant information about the lifestyle of the victim leading to the possibility of catching the offender. A researcher shows that the traditional way of police investigation has neglected the victim leading to the lack of profile of the victims in police reports. A study of the victims past is very important for getting the profile of kind of offender’s target. This tool is recently appreciated for solving violent crimes.

Victim of a crime

It is important that the police and the entire criminal system pay special attention to the relationships between victims and the offenders, police, courts and correction officials. Other areas of relevance are how the victims interact with other groups in society like media and the rest of society (Kingma, 1999). In the field of criminal law and criminology as a whole, the victim is seen as a person who has been harmed either directly or indirectly. Some of the consequences of most criminal activities are the emotional stress that victims have experienced. A study shows that about seventy five percent of crimes victims have had psychological problems like anxiety, fear, self blame, shame and anger (Donovan & Prestemon. 2010). The majority of clients have difficulty in sleeping which often develop to a post traumatic stress disorder. Post crime distress has been said to affect people adversely especially people in the later stages of life. The victims of a criminal activity may experience psychological effects like the perception of the victims that the world is meaningless and unfair. The victims have been found to develop a belief that they are vulnerable to further attacks and some have been found to hold the view that they are the cause of the attack in the because of how they dress or some other factor beyond their control.

Research Methodology

Data Collection Instrument

Questionnaires will be use to collect data in this study. This is because it enables the respondents to answer questions with lots of easy and without interruption.

Characteristics of Study Population

Random sample method was used to come up with the population to be used for study. This is because it helps to minimize some bias and errors that come up in the data analysis. A representative sample of the population in the study was drawn from the victims to represents the population of the study.

Data Analysis

The data was analyzed using the Microsoft excel. This is what was also used in organization of data and coming up with a graphical representation of the data. SPSS was used to conduct the statistical analysis of the data. In this regard the data from the number of the responses in the survey were quantified and then the average all the responses done by each participant was obtained from all the survey questionnaires completed.

Discussion of finding

There are some considerations that should be put into consideration when studying the victims of a crime. Some of he questions to be addressed include; why was a particular person targeted? How the person targeted and what was the victim’s likely response to the crime.

Conclusion and recommendation

There are three issues that have come up as crucial in a criminal justice system. It is very critical to understand why a victim was chosen to establish the relationship between the offender and the victim. It is only Victimology that will enable the investigators to narrow down on the offender by studying the victims. The victims can help to provide the physical and behavioral characteristic of the offender.

References

Andrew Karmen, (2003). Crime Victims: An Introduction to Victimology, Wadsworth Publishing.

Sebba, L., (2006). Third Parties, Victims and the Criminal Justice System. Ohio State University Press, Columbus.

Donovan, J. P. Prestemon. (2010). The Effect of Trees on Crime in Portland, Oregon. Environment and Behavior, DOI: Sage Pub.

Johannes Kingma, (1999). Repeat Victimization of Victims of Violence: A Retrospective Study From a Hospital Emergency Department for the Period 1971-1995 Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Vol. 14, No. 1, 79-90.