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Victimization

The term victimization refers to the adversity that results from exploitation as well as more generally to the process by which individuals and groups become victims. Victimization generally describes an experience characterized by a variety of conditions detrimental to an individual's or group's physical, social, cultural, or psychological well-being. Victimizers may be individuals, groups, social structures, or social institutions. The most common offenses include criminal acts, but victimization may also take the form of group prejudices, such as those commonly exhibited by the Ku Klux Klan against African Americans. Social structures and social institutions may also victimize to the extent that social processes adversely affect a particular group, such as victim discounting of African American homicides by law enforcement and the discrimination African Americans experience in the criminal justice system. This entry describes victims demographically, discusses the social process of victimization, and examines responses to and possible explanations for victimization.

Demographic Characteristics of Victims

While victims come from all segments of society, factors such as race, gender, age, and socioeconomic class reveal important patterns regarding victimization. Ethnic and racial minorities are more likely than other groups to be victims of violent acts, especially assault and homicide. For example, scholars report that African American and Latino men are almost six times more likely to be victims of homicide than Whites and are twice as likely to be assaulted as Caucasians.

Women are less likely to be victims of violent crime than men, except crimes involving domestic violence or sexual assault. A woman's lifetime risk of homicide is three to four times lower than a man's. Adolescents are more likely to be assaulted than young adults and older persons, and most rapes involve victims less than 18 years of age.

The socioeconomic status of family is a strong predictor of victimization, with the poor being especially vulnerable to a host of victimizing experiences. Interpreting demographic characteristics can be confusing; however, a general pattern is that age, gender, and race are characteristics interrelated with socioeco-nomic status. Women tend to have less money than men, youth less than older people, and racial minorities less than Caucasians.

The Process of Victimization

Victimization is best understood as a process that occurs in two phases: primary and secondary. Primary victimization refers to an initial harmful act, such as domestic violence. Secondary victimization refers to the reverberations or consequences that flow from the initial victimizing event. In cases of domestic violence, individuals may experience secondary victimization navigating the criminal justice system when incompetent or insensitive services are administered. In addition, victims may report mental health problems, such as fear and anxiety, as a result of domestic violence. Individuals and groups experience the effects of secondary victimization when they suffer the physical, social, or psychological ramifications of the initial victimization. The secondary effects of a harmful act are experiences in which victims revisit the initial harm in some form. Secondary victimization is best understood as a social process.

At the individual level, the trauma of the initial harmful event often causes long-lasting secondary effects in terms of stress, anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Victims may conceal their victimization out of fear of being stigmatized as well as to avoid reliving the victimizing experience. This veiling of victimization can result in serious psychological harm or health problems if medical services are required and not provided. Secondary victimization also includes the experiences of victims who feel legal and social services “put the burden on the victim” or “blame the victim” by treating them as responsible for or complicit in their own victimization. Individuals contend the label of “victim” establishes a conceptual framework by which society views them as weak and vulnerable. This has led many former victims to reconceptualize their experiences and regard themselves as survivors.

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