Victimization

Most research on victimization tries to explain why some people are more likely than others to be the targets of physical and social aggression, and what the consequences are for victims. In physical victimization, victims’ bodies are attacked via pushing, hitting, strangling, and so on. Social victimization involves emotional hurt caused by exclusion, malicious gossip, taunting, or other forms of verbal or nonverbal ostracism and rejection. Victimization is fairly common and occurs in all life stages. This entry focuses only on victimization that is serious because it is deeply felt or has other grave consequences; it does not discuss brief episodes that leave little or no mark.

Much victimization occurs within families. Estimates of the prevalence of within-family victimization vary widely due to varying definitions [Page 2295]of what constitutes victimization and the ages included in study samples. Victimization outside of the family is also multidimensional. Some forms are obvious, others subtle, but nevertheless deeply felt. Victimizing may be rooted in perpetrator and/or victim personality issues or in perpetrators’ prejudices. People who belong to minority groups in terms of ethnicity, race, religion, sexuality, or gender identity are more likely than majority group members to be targeted. People with disabilities are also disproportionately victimized. Those who aim to hurt people different from themselves may do so intentionally, but there is also increasing attention to implicit bias, which is unconscious bias that is based on negative stereotypes.

The temperament- or personality-based predispositions that make people particularly vulnerable to victimization include tendencies to be unassertive and have trouble regulating emotions. This may be because people with these tendencies are often perceived as unlikely to stand up for themselves. Research also finds that people who are chronically victimized tend toward low self-esteem, social ineptness, and little involvement with positive peer networks. The picture is complicated because these can also be consequences of victimization in vicious cycles that perpetuate themselves.

The importance of the social environment is evident from research showing that children with indifferent or harsh and inconsistent parents are especially likely to be victimized by peers. Moreover, just witnessing interparental violent conflict may traumatize children and increase the odds that they will be victimized by others even into adulthood. This is because many children in conflictual, unaccepting home environments develop fearful, anxious interaction patterns and mistrust of relationships that extend to ways of approaching others outside the home. Alienating school climates where students perceive unfairness from staff and teachers and where mistrust of others is pervasive also play a harmful role. Conversely, warm relationships and open, supportive styles of communication with family members, teachers, other mentors, and friends are protective, helping individuals withstand attempts to hurt them.

The cultural normativeness of aggression is also a factor. In some cultural groups, certain hurtful behaviors are considered usual, or just playful, and people tend to view them as inevitable or even acceptable. For example, in many regions in the world, physical punishment of wives for various real or imagined offenses is common and raises few objections. In the United States and elsewhere, many people view dominating behavior of older over younger siblings as normal and nothing to worry about. Moreover, culturally embedded standards often support victim blaming, as when rape victims are chided for the way they dressed or for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

...