Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Victims of crime'
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Krakow, Nathan. "Assessing crime victims' coping needs." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/29994.
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There is mounting evidence that psychological reactions to criminal victimization can be far more severe, much longerlasting, and recovery less complete than had been originally thought. The plight of crime victims is often compounded by a suspectibility to a 1 'second wound', or aggravation of their distress, arising from the neglect or mistreatment by those whom victims rely on for support. There is, at the same time, evidence that both the criminal justice system and the mental health profession have often been ill-equipped to adequately tend to the needs of this population. Despite a growing research interest in victimization (e.g., social psychology, counselling psychology, psychiatry, criminology), there is a lack of integration of victimization-related research both across and within these disciplines. As a result, those counselling crime victims and their families find insufficient guidance in the literature for intervening with this population.
In the aftermath of their misfortune, victims need to regain what was abruptly taken from them (i.e., a sense of safety, trust, agency, self-esteem, intimacy, a sense of the world as meaningful). To facilitate post-trauma counselling, an assessment of crime victims' coping needs is presented in the context of an interventive framework. The framework distinguishes victims' identified needs according to (1) victims' intermediate vs. long-term coping needs, (2) what victims need from others vs. what they can do for themselves, and (3) what victims need from whom. These distinctions serve to operationalize crime victims' adjustment processes. Furthermore, these distinctions require an integration of an otherwise diverse victimization literature.Education, Faculty of
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Moller, Valerie. "Living with crime: Does crime affect victims' perceived quality of life?" Institute for Security Studies (ISS), 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/6027.
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Crime is thought to be a major concern that shapes the everyday lives of South Africans. But what impact does living with high levels of crime have on the mindset of ordinary citizens? A recent household crime victimisation study conducted in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality provides tentative answers to this question.
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Kaukinen, Catherine Elizabeth. "The help-seeking of violent crime victims." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/NQ59077.pdf.
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Beck-Hummel, Suzanne M. "A policies and procedures manual for the operations of Crime Victims Council of the Lehigh Valley, Inc." Instructions for remote access. Click here to access this electronic resource. Access available to Kutztown University faculty, staff, and students only, 1993. http://www.kutztown.edu/library/services/remote_access.asp.
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Thesis (M.P.A.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 1993.Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2930. Abstract precedes thesis as [3] preliminary leaves. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.
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Nkukwana, Zingisile Wiseman. "The Rights of victims of crime in South Africa." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/12627.
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There is a perception among victims of crime, and people in general, in South Africa that the country’s laws favour and protect offenders. These people believe that offenders have more rights than victims which are derived from the Constitution of the country, and other legislative Acts of parliament. This view may sometimes lead to vigilantism and a total disregard of the law. The study will show that victims do have rights in the country’s legislations. The study briefly explains the sources of such laws, like the Constitution, the Victims Charter and selected provisions of some Acts of parliament. It is a fact that the section 35 of the Constitution provides in detail, the rights of the arrested, detained and accused. It is also submitted persons that there is no specific provision that talks about the rights of the victims of crime. However, that does not mean that such victims do not have rights in terms of the constitution. The rights of victims of crime are seen during the courts’ interpretation and application of rights mentioned in the Bill of Rights. The use of words like “everyone” and “any person” in the Bill of Rights also refers to victims of crime. Therefore, the Constitution is not victim-biased and offender-friendly. The Constitution protects everybody because it seeks to uphold the values of human dignity, equality, freedom and the African concept of ubuntu. The study discusses briefly the rights of victims as adopted by the Victims’ Charter. The Charter lists these rights, but does not explain how such rights are to be achieved. South Africa also developed a document called the Minimum Standards for Services for Victims of Crime which indicates how each right is to be achieved. The study also shows that South Africa had developed some Acts of parliament even before the adoption of the Victims Charter. South Africa claims that the Victims’ Charter is compliant with the Constitution and the United Nations Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice Abuse of Power of 1985. It is submitted that this statement is not entirely correct, especially with regards to the provision that deals with compensation. South Africa did not define compensation as defined by the United Nations Declaration. This can be seen as a dismal failure by South Africa to abide by the United Nations Declaration and this has resulted in more harm suffered by victims of crime. The study also discusses how rape victims benefit through the use of Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act of 2007. This begins with the changing of the definition of rape. The Act also deals with how rape victims can access antiretroviral drugs to prevent HIV/Aids infection. It explains limitations on the right to privacy of the accused, especially to compel him or her to undergo an HIV test. The HIV positive status of the accused can be used as an aggravating factor during sentencing in terms of UNAIDS policies. S v Nyalungu 2005 (JOL) 13254 (T) is a leading case in South Africa showing compliance with UNAIDS policies. Restorative justice mechanisms have been discussed to show positive movement by South Africa from a retributive justice system to a restorative justice system. The advantages of such mechanisms for victims have been discussed. The study also describes briefly some selected provisions of the Criminal Procedure Act of 1977 and how these provisions benefit victims of crime. These include sections 153, 170A, 297, 299A, 300 and 301. The study highlights some challenges that still exist and what innovations can be made. This includes recommendations which can be made to benefit victims of crime further. For example, an apology can be used as one of the important principles in the restorative justice system. It is submitted and recommended that truth and apology go hand in glove and the basic elements of forgiveness. South Africa can pride itself with regards to this approach especially during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which was established in post-apartheid South Africa. The study concludes by saying that South Africa should set up a victim-compensation scheme. It is submitted that South Africa can afford such a scheme despite the problems identified.
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Ferrer-Carrasco, Maria Josefina. "Victims of crime in Venezuela rights and services." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/4834.
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Horne, Christopher J. "Students' experiences of crime at Loughborough University." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.250897.
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Everson, Steven Paul. "Repeat offenders and repeat victims : mutual attraction or misfortune." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.323659.
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Wilson, Rosemary Isobel. "Constructing the experience of crime : victims, state and society." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/27064.
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Previous research concerning criminal victimisation is characterised by adherence to the positivist paradigm. This thesis will seek to show how this contributes to a limited understanding of the experience of crime. This study represents a shift from the positivistic nature of previous research through an emphasis upon the construction of crime. This shift may be viewed as contributing to an increased understanding of the experience of crime. The first half of the thesis seeks to show how the experience of crime has been constructed in academic debate and by agencies with an interest in victims of crime. The thesis will demonstrate how these constructions are unsophisticated and incomplete principally because of neglect concerning the experience of crime as constructed by the victims of crime themselves. In response to this, the second half of the thesis proposes an alternative methodology for the study of the victim's experience of victimhood. This involves an application of an interactive computer programme designed for the elicitation of repertory grids. This technique is employed in relation to understanding the personal experiences of rape and housebreaking. The rationale for the examination of these experiences is grounded in agency classification of these experiences as discrete and quantitatively different in terms of seriousness. The experience of rape is classified as violent crime and inherently more serious than the experience of housebreaking which is classified as a property crime. The study seeks to show how the experiences of rape and housebreaking are qualitatively, as opposed to quantitatively, similar through the perceived 'violation' of self. The thesis concludes by proposing an approach based upon the constructivist paradigm which may be viewed as contributing to a more informed and sophisticated understanding of the experience of victimhood.
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Wolhuter, Lorraine Winifred. "Enforceable rights for victims of crime in England and Wales." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/5172.
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Doctor Legum - LLDThe thesis draws on the author's own contribution to a co-authored text Wolhuter, et al, 2009), which was aimed at introducing students to the legal landscape pertaining to victims' rights in England and Wales. All the arguments presented and issues addressed in this contribution constitute the author's own work, and were developed without any form of collaboration with the co-authors. While the thesis incorporates the basic issues that arose for consideration in the author's contribution to this text, it goes beyond this contribution to develop a systematic framework for the recognition of enforceable victims' rights flowing from the overarching rules of EU law. The thesis explores the extent to which the entrenchment in English law of enforceable rights for victims of crime in general, and socially unequal victims in particular, will reduce secondary victimisation at the hands of criminal justice agencies. The absence of such rights in English law constitutes a significant lacuna in the state’s responses to victims, particularly in light of the recent recognition of enforceable victims’ rights in EU law. The thesis accordingly seeks to contribute to the generation of a victims' rights discourse in the UK, with the aim of encouraging the introduction of enforceable rights for victims. To this end, it engages in a comparative analysis of victims' rights in EU law, European human rights law and American law. It contends that the United Kingdom ought to agree to be bound by the Draft Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime (2011, the "Victims' Directive"), which will render the victims' rights enshrined therein directly enforceable in national courts. In addition, it considers each of the rights in the Framework Decision on the standing of victims in criminal proceedings (2001/220/JHA), and its prospective successor, the Victims' Directive, including the rights to information, respect and recognition, protection, participation and compensation, pointing to ways in which these rights may be given full effect in English law. In particular, the thesis advocates the recognition of active victim participation to empower victims in the pre-trial and trial processes. It maintains that the models of active victim participation in German and Swedish law, namely auxiliary prosecution and victims’ lawyers, reduce secondary victimisation, particularly for vulnerable victims of serious offences, and ought to be introduced in English law. The thesis also evaluates the position of socially unequal victims, namely women victims of gender-based violence, minority ethnic victims of racially and religiously motivated crime, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ("LGBT") victims of homophobic and transphobic crime, and victims of elder abuse. It locates these victims within the framework of international and European human rights law, and recommends reforms to English law that would facilitate and enhance their exercise of the victims' rights that it advocates. The thesis concludes by delineating the contours of a victims' rights' model, which encompasses the recognition of victims' rights as enforceable human rights, the correlation of these rights with the right to freedom from discrimination, and the introduction of active procedural rights in the pre-trial and trial processes.
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Tait, Fiona Mary. "Testaments of transformation: The victim impact statement process in NSW as experienced by victims of crime and victim service professionals." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/14033.
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This study, featuring one of the largest, broad-based samples of primary and family victims of crime (VOC) interviewed in-depth regarding the victim impact statement (VIS) process, aimed to address current gaps in VIS knowledge to include whether some sectors of the VOC community are better, or more poorly served by VIS process and why. Drawn from data collected from 66 VOC and 35 victim service professionals in NSW between 2010 and 2011, it further sought to uncover the exact therapeutic benefits of VIS and present a comprehensive picture of the NSW VIS process as experienced by VOC. Providing insight into difficulties and challenges that VOC negotiate when considering making a VIS, it presents a firsthand understanding of the nature, challenges and risks of the VIS writing experience and novel data on the impact of legal processes such as VIS editing, and types of assistance VOC use and require. Findings show the core therapeutic value of VIS is robust, standing alone, even where levels of anger or psychological trauma remain unaffected, and despite VOC dissatisfaction with other elements of their criminal justice experience or sentence handed down. However, findings also show that the nature of the crime, relationship with the offender, gender, literacy, culture, minority status and self-worth can individually or collectively impact VOC access and engagement with VIS process. The decision to make, write and present a VIS in court is complex; highly sensitive to exterior mechanisms, legal processes and relational forces; and emotionally, and for some, psychologically challenging. Provision of VIS information and support is variable, with high levels of editing and inconsistencies in editing rationale reported, suggesting some confusion regarding the intended purpose of VIS within sentencing proceedings. In response, the study provides recommendations regarding VIS process, specifically designed resource tools and further research.
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Field, Courtney. "An examination of forgiveness and revenge in victims of crime." Thesis, Field, Courtney (2012) An examination of forgiveness and revenge in victims of crime. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2012. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/10516/.
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This body of work examines the concepts of forgiveness and revenge in victims of crime. Victims are historically under-researched and in particular there is a need for further examination of the psychological impact of victimisation. Twelve victims participated in in-depth semi-structured interviews concerning their understanding of forgiveness and revenge. Transcripts of these interviews were subsequently analysed using a rigorous Grounded Theory approach.
This thesis presents the argument that forgiveness is contextually bound; its exact nature being determined by the circumstances and consequences of a particular transgression. The research emphasises the intrapersonal nature of forgiveness, revealing a model that is considerably different from those that have been proposed by other researchers. In particular, the broad assumption that forgiveness is a ‘prosocial’ construct that involves the development of positive affect for a transgressor is not supported. Forgiveness is understood as a ‘gift to the self’ stemming from the development of deeper self-awareness concerning the impact of the offence on victims. With deeper self-awareness, victims are able to let go of the negative feelings, thoughts and behaviours which have resulted from the offence. Instead of developing benevolent feelings towards the offender, victims engage in perspective-taking which fosters attributions for an external locus-of-control for the offender’s behaviour. The major result of forgiveness is a sense of moving on from the offence which can be understood as the lessening of a cognitive orientation to the past.
Revenge has received very little attention from researchers to date. Where it has been examined previously, it has been assumed to be a unidimensional construct. By posing a rich and intricate model, this thesis provides the most detailed understanding of revenge currently available. Revenge is a distinct form of aggression stemming from substantial negative affect towards the offender and entrenched feelings of powerlessness that result from the offence. These feelings of powerlessness result in a strong motivational drive to restore the balance between the victim and the offender. While generally an affective construct, victims tended to compulsively plan and fantasise about how they would exact revenge.
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Pashdag, Joanna A. "Sexual Assault Survivors' Narratives and Prediction of Revictimization." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2004. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?ohiou1103229596.
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Gal, Tali, and tali gal@anu edu au. "Victims to Partners: Child Victims and Restorative Justice." The Australian National University. Research School of Social Sciences, 2006. http://thesis.anu.edu.au./public/adt-ANU20061114.100521.
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Children belong to one of the most vulnerable population groups to crime. Child victims of crime have to overcome the difficulties emerging from their victimization as well as those resulting from their participation in the adversarial criminal justice process. Child victims are typically treated by legal systems as either mere witnesses -- prosecutorial instruments -- or as objects of protection. Children's human rights and their needs beyond immediate protection are typically ignored.
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This thesis combines an examination of children's human rights (articulated largely in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child) with a review of psycho-social literature on children's needs. It integrates the two disciplines thus creating a `needs-rights' model regarding child victims. This model is then used to evaluate the criminal justice process and its successes (and failures) in meeting the needs and rights of child victims. Such an integrated needs-rights evaluation identifies not only the difficulties associated with testifying in court and being interviewed multiple times. It goes beyond these topical issues, and uncovers other shortcomings of the current legal system such as the lack of true participation of child victims in the decision-making process, the neglect of rehabilitative and developmental interests of victimized children, and the inherent inability of the adversarial process to seek proactively the best interests of child victims.
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The thesis further explores an alternative to the criminal justice process -- that
of restorative justice -- and examines its applicability to child victims. Unlike the
criminal justice paradigm, restorative justice fosters the equal participation of the
stakeholders (in particular victims, offenders and their communities), and focuses
on their emotional and social rehabilitation while respecting their human rights. To explore the suitability of restorative justice for child victims, five restorative justice schemes from New Zealand, Australia and Canada and their evaluation studies are reviewed. Each of these schemes has included child victims, and most of them have dealt with either sexual assaults of children or family violence and abuse. Yet each of the evaluated schemes illuminates different concerns and proposes varying strategies for meeting the needs-rights of child victims.
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While these schemes demonstrate the significant potential of restorative justice to better address the full scope of the needs and rights of child victims, they uncover emerging concerns as well. Therefore, in the last part of the thesis, the needs-rights model is used once again to derive subsidiary principles for action, to maximize the benefits of restorative justice for child victims and minimize the related risks. A complex set of needs and rights is managed by a method of grouping them into needs-rights clusters and deriving from them simple heuristics for practitioners to follow. This clustering method of needs-rights-heuristics is a methodological contribution of the research to the psychology of law.
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Soyombo, Omololu. "Crime victims in Nigeria : a study of the extent of crime and the effects of victimization." Thesis, University of Essex, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.304920.
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MacAlister, David. "Financial compensation for victims of crime, tort damages as restorative justice?" Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape10/PQDD_0023/MQ51402.pdf.
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Wilson, Amy, and Andera D. Dr Clements. "A Correlation Study between Religiosity and Empathy toward Victims of Crime." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2017. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/431.
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This present study was conducted to examine the relationship between religious involvement and empathy towards victims of crime. There was a total sample size of 84 individuals that participated in an online survey. Religiosity was measured using the Belief into Action scale. Empathy towards victims of crime was observed using the Victim Impact Scale. A Pearson correlation showed no significant relationship between religious involvement and empathy towards victims. There was, however, a negative significant correlation between Accountability score and percent of income given to religious causes (r=-.297, p=.011), victim blaming and how much time is spent in religious volunteering (r=-.261, p=.025), knowledge of victim-related facts and how often one attends religious services (r=-.263, p=.029), percent of income given to religious causes (r=-.301, p=.012), and time spent in religious volunteering (r=-.312, p=.01).
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Downe, Kristy. "Exploration of perceptions of justice amongst secondary victims of sexual crime." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2007. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/256.
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Justice is a key concept upon which society is built. Different interpretations of justice, and disagreements over what it demands, continue to complicate its meaning and application. Though academic and public discourse has added to knowledge as to what justice represents, developing an understanding of justice from the view of "everyday people" has important empirical and clinical implications. It is argued here that research grounded in people's lived experience yields a more comprehensive picture of justice in terms of how the concept is structured and secondly, how its meaning varies between individuals. Such knowledge can be used to develop judicial and community policies/services better suited to community needs. This research focused on perceptions of justice amongst family and friends of victims (secondary victims) of sexual assault or abuse. Evidence suggests that secondary victims are affected by victimisation similar to direct victims and furthermore, are important to direct victims' recovery. Sexual crime also represents an important form of crime in that it constitutes a particularly serious violation of personal boundaries. A grounded theory approach to empirical inquiry was adopted in this research in keeping with the emphasis on exploration and lived experience. Data was collected over 2 interrelated studies. In Study 1, 20 participants completed a pen-and-paper questionnaire. In Study 2, which constituted the main study, 29 participants took part in semi-structured interviews. Analysis revealed that a sense of justice emerged out of themes/concepts covering two major areas: the experience of victimisation and secondly, beliefs about justice per se. Victimisation impacted on participants similar to how contact with traumatised individuals results in secondary trauma in some carers, health professionals, and similar support figures. Justice themes/concepts relevant to participants overlapped with elements represented in procedural and retributive theories of justice, as well as centring on concepts, such as healing and recognition, which fall outside of traditional justice theory. Participants sought "good enough" rather than absolute justice and relatively few participants believed good enough justice had been achieved in their situation. Overall, findings indicated that justice is expressed and realised in different ways between individuals despite clustering around common themes/concepts.
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Ståhlberg, Linda. "Victim Support och konstruktioner av brottsoffret : En kvalitativ fallstudie av den engelska brottsofferjouren." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Avdelningen för socialt arbete och psykologi, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-22020.
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Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur de som jobbar med brottsdrabbade inom den engelska brottsofferjouren, Victim Support, förstår brottsdrabbades behov och sin egen roll i att bemöta dessa. Avsikten var även att undersöka hur traditionella föreställningar kring brottsdrabbade, och kategorier som manligt/kvinnligt, ålder, klass etcetera, påverkar denna förståelse. Studien utfördes genom kvalitativa intervjuer med volontärer och anställd personal inom Victim Support. Resultaten visade att jouraktiva väger in flera parametrar när de bedömer brottsdrabbades behov. Kategorierna ålder, kön och brottstyp framkom som särskilt betydelsefulla. Traditionella föreställningar om brottsoffer framträder också i intervjudeltagarnas resonemang och tycks påverka sättet man förstår sin egen roll som ”hjälpare” på. Klienter som uppfattas avvikande har ibland svårare att få adekvat stöd. Det är därför av stor vikt att alla som jobbar med brottsdrabbade blir medvetna om hur stereotypiska antaganden kan ta sig i uttryck och vad de kan få för konsekvenser.The aim of this study was to investigate how people working in English Victim Support, understand crime victim's needs and their own role in addressing them. The purpose was also to investigate how traditional notions of crime victims and categories such as gender, age, class etcetera, affect this understanding. The study was conducted through qualitative interviews with volunteers and staff of Victim Support. The results showed that the participants took several parameters in consideration when assessing crime victim’s needs. The categories of age, sex and type of crime emerged as particularly significant. Traditional notions of victims also appear to influence the participants understanding of victims and their own role. Clients perceived as deviant may also have difficulties in receiving adequate support. It is therefore important that all working with crime victims become aware of how stereotypical assumptions can manifest and the potential consequences of them.
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Thunberg, Sara. "Who Cares? : A Study of the Social Services’ Responsibility for Crime Victims." Thesis, Örebro universitet, Institutionen för juridik, psykologi och socialt arbete, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-29614.
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The Swedish Social Services Act (2001:453) states that crime victims should be a priority group for the social services and that they have a responsibility to ensure that victims receive the needed help and support. The aim with this study was to examine how the Swedish municipal social services fulfil their responsibility for the psychosocial wellbeing of crime victims, by examining the collaboration between Victim Support and the social services. Interviews were conducted with crime victims, crime victim coordinators and social workers. The social services have an overall responsibility for the psy-chosocial support to crime victims. However, the study show that in reality the social services, in many cases, do not provide this help and support, as there is a view that it is not their responsibility. Instead, the victims are referred to various support organisations such as Victim Support, without really knowing what kind of support they are offering. Furthermore, the social services in some mu-nicipalities argue that there is no opportunity for them to collaborate with Victim Support due to con-fidentiality, even though it is possible in other municipalities. Through collaboration resources can be saved, and knowledge and awareness of the victims’ needs can be increased. This can eventually lead to that victims’ receive better care, which can result in shorter recovery time for crisis that may have occurred due to the experience of crime.I socialtjänstlagen (2001:453) framgår att brottsoffer ska vara en prioriterad grupp för socialtjänsten och att de har ansvar för att se till att brottsoffer får hjälp och stöd. Syftet med denna studie var att un-dersöka hur socialtjänsten uppfyller sitt ansvar för det psykosociala stödet till brottsoffer, genom att undersöka samverkan mellan socialtjänsten och Brottsofferjouren. Studien genomförs genom intervju-er med brottsoffersamordnare, socialsekreterare och brottsoffer. Det framkommer att socialtjänsten, enligt socialtjänstlagen, har det övergripande ansvaret för det psykosociala stödet till brottsoffer. Re-sultatet från studien visar dock att socialtjänsten i många fall inte ger hjälp och stöd till brottsoffer, då det finns ett synsätt att de inte har ansvar för detta. Istället hänvisas brottsoffren till olika stödorganisa-tioner såsom Brottsofferjouren, utan att socialtjänsten har någon djupare kunskap om vad dessa orga-nisationer erbjuder för stöd. Vidare menar socialtjänsten i vissa kommuner att det inte finns någon möjlighet att samverka med Brottsofferjouren på grund av sekretess, trots att andra kommuner kan göra det. Samverkan kan vara ett bra sätt att spara resurser, samtidigt som kunskapen och medveten-heten kring brottsoffers behov ökar. Detta kan på sikt göra att brottsoffer får ett bättre omhänderta-gande, vilket i sin tur kan resultera i kortare återhämtningstider efter den kris som kan ha uppstått i samband med brottsupplevelsen.
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Boriboonthana, Yossawan. "The effect of restorative justice practices on crime victims : a meta-analysis." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2006. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/3582/.
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When the restorative justice idea is implemented, its goals and values might not be entirely pursued clue to various factors such as penal goals, relevant social theories, cultural difference, and the values and norms of people in society. These factors might have an influence on its practices as well as its electiveness. Moreover, empirical evidence relating to the effect of restorative justice practices on crime victims is not consistent and casts doubt on its reliability and validity. These limitations snake it uncertain that restorative justice practices can restore victims. Therefore, this research study aims to investigate the actual effect by systematically analysing quantitative and qualitative findings of the existing studies conducted in various countries, compare the effect between different restorative justice practices. i. e. conferencing and mediation and the conventional criminal justice system: and investigate factors relating, to the effect. i. e., case characteristics, scheme characteristics and study characteristics. The meta-analytical method is used to analyse research findings collected from 17 restorative justice schemes implemented in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United States and United Kingdom. Results from the meta-analysis confirm that comer acing and mediation have a profound effect on the outcomes of victim satisfaction, perception of fairness, fear of revictimisation, attitude toward offenders, agreement completion, and receiving of an apology. The effect ranges from 2 to 12 times as opposed to the conventional justice system with the highest on the outcome of the receiving of an apology and the lowest on the outcome of the perception of fairness. Two outcomes are examined further and results show that restorative justice practices are likely to increase victim satisfaction and perception of fairness among victims of serious cases more so than among victims of less serious cases. In addition, they are likely to increase victim satisfaction and perception of fairness on victim's attitude toward the way their cases were handled than the case outcomes. These findings confirm the importance of the restorative process and suggest that restorative justice schemes should put more emphasis on serious cases.
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Nicol, William Joseph. "Why me? : self-blame attributions and counterfactual thinking in victims of crime." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.430390.
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The aim of the thesis was to see whether or not counterfactual thinking plays a significant role in psychological readjustment and interpretation of the experience of house breaking taking the victim’s perspective. The results of early studies of blame attribution (Janoff-Bulman, 1979; Meyer & Taylor, 1986; Frazier, 1990; Frazier & Schauben, 1994 and Winkel, Denkers, & Vrij, 1994) could have been influenced by the way the questions were phrased in the measures used in which blame attribution and counterfactual style was confounded. It is not clear from past research whether self-blame serves to enhance or inhibit psychological readjustment from the victimisation experience. A series of four studies are reported in this thesis. Experiment 1 was conducted with four manipulations of a set of questions taken from Janoff-Bulman (1979) and Winkel et al.’s (1994) studies. Janoff-Bulman (1979) suggested that there was a distinction between blaming one’s character and blaming one’s behaviour in cases of criminal victimisation. When Janoff-Bulman’s (1979) original experiment (which suggested that there were two types of self-blame) was replicated, the distinction between behavioural and characterological self-blame was supported. However, when sets of questions were presented in a consistent counterfactual style the distinction between behaviour and character was no longer found. This has implications for future research in the field of functional attribution as counterfactual thinking may have influenced participant’s responses to the questions asked in early research, rather than aspects of self-blame attribution. Experiment 2 was conducted to see if Kahneman and Tversky’s (1982) original counterfactual thinking theory could be replicated using a housebreaking scenario. The results confirmed that it did. Experiment 3 was conducted to pilot interview techniques and the use of a range of psychological measures in the final experiment. Experiment 4 was conducted on a self-selected group of victims of housebreaking. Counterfactual thinking was revealed in interview data. A prospective analysis showed that counterfactual thinking in the first phase of the study predicted counterfactual thinking 12 months later. Analysis also revealed that counterfactual thinking in the first phase predicted psychological readjustment. When compared with low frequency counterfactual thinkers, those who thought counterfactually most frequently just after the incident scored in the abnormal range of stress and impact of the event measures several months later. The findings may explain confounds in attributional explanations of psychological readjustment. Results could also direct future research on counterfactual thinking and its impact on affective responses. Finally, the findings can inform us about the possible effectiveness of a restorative justice approach.
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Imiera, Pius. "Developing a legal framework for state compensation of crime victims in Nigeria." Thesis, University of Pretoria, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/64611.
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The 1999 Constitution of Nigeria provides expressly for the safety and protection of the rights of citizens in general terms, including other provisions which guarantee the safety of the Nigerian people; however, the Constitution places priority on the rights of criminals over and above the rights and interests of crime victims. This position and situation has engendered public dissatisfaction with the Nigerian criminal justice systems in general and the Constitution in particular.
This study has analysed the means and mechanisms available in the Nigerian legal system for crime victims’ compensation and restitution for criminal acts committed against them, and it has found that those means are different to what are obtained in other jurisdictions. The study further found that state-funded compensation for crime victims is practiced to various degrees in places like New Zealand, Great Britain, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, Germany, Finland, Colombia and the Philippines to mention but a few.
The study discovered that, as it stands presently in Nigeria, there are no public compensation schemes for crime victims and that the compensation mechanisms that exist in the country which the courts award are grossly inadequate. The study also found that the Nigerian government does not see the need to establish state-funded compensation schemes for crime victims on the premise that crime victims should exercise their rights to claim compensation from the criminal offenders in delictual or tort claims. This study, therefore, argues that the extant legal frameworks in Nigeria are manifestly inadequate to provide for the needs of crime victims effectively in the aftermath of victimization and recommends the development of a system for state-funded compensation for crime victims in Nigeria building on comparative best practices and international guidelines such as the UN Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power and the Commonwealth Guidelines for the Treatment of Victims of Crime.Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2017.
Centre for Human Rights
LLD
Unrestricted
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Holm, Fanny. "Justice for victims of atrocity crimes : prosecution and reparations under international law." Doctoral thesis, Umeå universitet, Juridiska institutionen, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-138761.
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This thesis takes its starting point from the need for a comprehensive approach towards justice following atrocities, and where not only the states in which the crimes were committed have a role to play. The thesis discusses atrocity crime (genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes) prosecution and reparations procedures concerning individuals as two appropriate courses of action, through which non-territorial states may contribute to atrocity prevention and justice for the victims of atrocities. The analysis addresses whether, under international law, non-territorial states are allowed to, required to, or prohibited from facilitating prosecution and reparations procedures and includes an assessment of the extent to which international law relating to reparations fails to correspond to that applicable to prosecution. The implications of the lack of correspondence are analysed in light of the historical connection and separation of the two courses of action, the procedural and substantive legal overlaps between prosecution and reparations, and the underlying aims and functions of prosecution and reparations. The study covers a wide spectrum of international legal sources, most of them to be found in human rights law, humanitarian law and international criminal law. The study shows that while non-territorial states are included in both conventional and customary law as regards prosecution of atrocity crimes, the same cannot be said in relation to reparations procedures. This serious deficit and inconsistency in international law, is explained by the framing of reparations, but not prosecution, as a matter concerning victims and human rights, thereby leaving the enforcement of the rules to the discretion of each state. Reparation is also considered a private matter and as such falls outside the scope of the far-reaching obligations regarding prosecution. The study suggests taking further the responsibilities of non-territorial states in relation to atrocity crimes. Most urgently, measures should be considered that bring the legal space for reparations procedures into line with that for prosecution in, for instance, future discussions by human rights treaty-monitoring bodies and in the drafting of new international victims' rights, atrocity crimes or civil procedure instruments.
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Tabbert, Ulrike. "Crime through a corpus : the linguistic construction of offenders, victims and crimes in the German and UK press." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2013. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/18078/.
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In this thesis I analyse and compare the linguistic construction of offenders, victims and crimes in the British and German press. I have collected a corpus of British and German newspaper articles reporting on crime and criminal trials and carried out a corpus linguistic analysis of this data using the software package Wordsmith Tools (Scott, 2004). Reports on crime do not construct a neutral representation of offenders. By employing the tools offered by Critical Stylistics (Jeffries, 2010a) and combining them with Corpus Linguistics I identify the linguistic features used to pre convict offenders and to invoke a feeling of insecurity and fear in the public. The negative associations assigned to crime are transferred to the offenders and thus construct them as being evil and label them as deviant (Becker, 1966: 31). The linguistic construction of the victim ultimately impacts on the construction of offenders because the two are placed at opposite ends of a morality scale. It is through language that such ideologically motivated representations of offenders are constructed and reinforced. The image of the evil-perpetrating monster constructed in the media as part of societal discourse on crime is based on ideologies which my research aims to reveal. I argue that the underlying ideologies for the construction of offenders, victims and crimes in the British and German press are comparable and that the linguistic triggers for these in the texts are similar. I found no distinction between the persona of the offender and his or her crime because offenders only gain a celebrity-like status following the crime they have committed. This fascination with crime in the media has roots in the ‘backstage nature of crime’ (Surette, 2009: 240) which satisfies the voyeuristic desire of the audience.
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Yip, King-sum. "Victims of childhood sexual abuse and later criminal consequences." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 2000. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B22030578.
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Chavez, Nicholas Marshall. "CAN WE LEARN FROM HACKERS TO PROTECT VICTIMS?" CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/690.
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This project examines the protection methods suggested by hackers to guard against online victimization through the lens of Situation Crime Prevention. Data were collected from 85 webpages representing three categories of electronic communications: forums, blogs, and fan pages. The goal of this project was to identify which of the 25 opportunity reduction techniques the hacking community recommend most often, as well as, what level of expertise was associated with the suggested security measures. Results indicate that the technique most recommended by the hacking community was to remove targets with 27% of the total codings. From the results three themes were found: (1) most recommendations are such that implementing the strategies would serve to protect against opportunistic, low-skilled attacks; (2) most recommendations could be considered routine precautions, that when bundled, would secure most people against cyber-theft; and finally, (3) the Situational Crime Prevention framework was not fully realized because much of cyber-theft does not involve direct victim-perpetrator interactions. From these three themes policy recommendation and limitations are presented as well as avenues for future research.
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Green, Diane Lois. "A multivariate model of the stress and coping process for victims of crime." Digital version:, 2000. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/fullcit?p9992804.
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Cheung, Hok-wong. "The demand for reparations and the grievances of war crime victims in China /." View Abstract or Full-Text, 2002. http://library.ust.hk/cgi/db/thesis.pl?SOSC%202002%20CHEUNG.
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Le, Tien Hoang. "Human trafficking in Vietnam: Preventing crime and protecting victims through inter-agency cooperation." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2017. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/110537/1/Tien%20Hoang_Le_Thesis.pdf.
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This thesis is an exploratory investigation into multifaceted counter-trafficking activities in Vietnam. The study's aims include: examining inter-agency cooperation in preventing human trafficking and protecting victims; identifying root causes of the problem; and suggesting appropriate solutions to better trafficking prevention and victim protection. To achieve these aims, 25 semi-structured interviews with five different cohorts (police officers, border guards, women's union staff, social welfare staff, and staff from the Ministry of Information and Communication) were conducted. In addition, seventy government reports and five conference proceedings specific to the situation in Vietnam were collected, critically analyzed, and used to triangulate the findings from the semi-structured interviews.
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Bannister, Benjamin. "Secondary victims' perceptions of justice : implications for forensic psychology." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2013. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/559.
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An emerging area of study has begun to look at the perceptions of justice of the family and friends of crime victims – or, secondary victims. It is important to improve understanding of secondary victims’ experiences of justice, partly because knowledge about how they perceive justice may help forensic psychologists assist them more effectively. This research attempted to assess how well existing justice theories could account for secondary victims’ perceptions of justice, and also help determine what is important to them. Using the largely ignored group of secondary victims of non-sexual violent crime, the research consisted of two interrelated stages. In Stage One, qualitative analysis was used to determine the justice perceptions of 22 secondary victims. The findings revealed that a combination of principles from various theories of justice were present in secondary victims’ views. However, participants also endorsed unique aspects of victimisation that did not link directly to existing theories. Importantly, many participants made primary victim and offender outcome comparisons using seven variables. Three related to the primary victim and four related to the offender. A second stage of research involved 156 potential secondary victim participants drawn from the community. They responded to a scenario involving a victim of crime, in order to determine whether they considered the same seven variables identified in Stage One in deciding whether justice had been achieved for that victim. The results showed that participants considered these variables when making comparisons of outcomes, and did so irrespective of whether they felt justice had been achieved in the given scenario. Overall, the findings of the two stages of this research represented an important step towards a more comprehensive understanding of the justice experiences and perceptions of secondary victims of violent crime, and therefore have important implications for forensic psychologists working with this group.
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Von, Bonde Johannes Christian. "Redress for victims of crime in South Africa: a comparison with selected Commonwealth jurisdictions." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/640.
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In terms of the Constitution every person has the right to freedom and security of the person. This includes the right to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources. The state is charged with the duty to protect the individual from such harm. While the Constitution refers to the protection of victims of crime in broad and general terms without indicating how these rights should be protected, it makes meticulous and detailed provision for the rights of arrested, detained and accused persons. This leads to the popular belief that the Constitution protects the criminal and not the victim, engendering public dissatisfaction with the status quo, which is amplified by the fact that South Africa’s current legal dispensation for victims of crime does not embody the requirements of ubuntu and African customary law, which the Constitution declares to be binding on South African courts. This study analyses the means that exist in South African law for the victim of crime to obtain redress for criminal acts and proposes effective avenues through which victims can obtain redress, should the existing machinery prove to be inadequate. The term restitution is used to indicate recompense obtained from the perpetrator, while the term compensation refers to recompense obtained from the state. A comparative study is conducted to ascertain how the legal position of victims of crime in South Africa compares with that of victims of crime in Great Britain, India and New Zealand, respectively. South Africa does not have a state-funded victim compensation scheme such as those which exist in most developed countries. The respective proposals of the South African Law Commission for a victim compensation scheme and revised legislation to deal with offender/victim restitution are considered critically, inter alia, in the light of the findings of the comparative study. Proposals are made regarding changes to the South African legal system to bring it in line with international developments regarding restitution and compensation to victims of crime, attention being given to the meaning, significance and implementation of the doctrine of restorative justice when dealing with the aftermath of criminal injury. In addition to a complete revision of South African legislation dealing with offender/victim restitution, this study recommends the consolidation of the Road Accident Fund and the Compensation Fund operating in terms of the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act. These two bodies should be amalgamated to create a unified Compensation Scheme to compensate victims of crime, as well as victims of traffic and industrial injuries. General qualifying criteria for claimants would be drafted, with specific criteria applying in cases of traffic, industrial and crime related injuries, respectively.
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Ismaili, Karim. "Contextualizing federal criminal justice policy formation, the case of victims of crime in Canada." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/nq21293.pdf.
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Rose, Suzanna Christina. "A randomised trial of a single early psychological intervention for victims of violent crime." Thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.391362.
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Hall, Matthew Peter. "Putting victims of crime 'at the heart' of criminal justice : practice, politics and philosophy." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.443512.
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McLean, L. "The effect of violent video game playing on gamer's views of victims of crime." Thesis, Nottingham Trent University, 2015. http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/27924/.
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This research was designed to explore the relationship between violent video game play and attitudes towards victims. As the violent genre of games become more popular and as the graphics and content becomes even more realistic and immersive, there has been concern that this media form offers a different perspective on violence to players than more passive forms of media. Much of the research in the area of violent video game research has focused on changes in players in terms of aggressive behaviour, following exposure to these games. The present research was designed to explore any changes in affect and cognition, in terms of attitudes, that may be associated with video game play, and also to explore any factors that may moderate or mediate these changes in players, with a particular emphasis on adolescents and female gamers. The overall aims of the thesis were to establish i) the attitudes of gamers towards victims of crime ii) the role of moral disengagement strategies in violent video game play iii) the nature and experience of female violent video game play. The aims were addressed through four stages of linked research utilising a multi method design including a survey of adolescents (n=206), semi structured interviews (n=50), an online and paper survey (n=605) and analysis of a female gamer online discussion posts, in order to explore the impact of violent video game play The principal findings of this thesis noted young people who played violent video games reporting less concern for victims of crime, and attributed more blame to the victims of crime, particularly non serious victims and those that could be viewed as culpable for the crimes. While moral disengagement has been proposed as a mechanism through which people may justify immoral conduct, in the current studies the video game players were less likely than sports players to endorse moral disengagement strategies. They were found however to use a specific set of moral disengagement strategies (cognitive restructuring) than sports players and this may be related to the structures of the games, both virtual and sporting. In relation to female gamers, gaming was found to be a key element of the female gamers’ identity, with females discussing the integration of gaming into their daily lives on a number of different levels. Similar to previous research, the social elements of gaming was highlighted while simultaneous difficulties with Page 12 of 281 online interaction emphasised for female gamers. The results of the studies are discussed in relation to the experience of gaming and the possible mediating and moderating factors that may explain these effects. The results suggest that cognitive distortions, developmental stages, gender and differences in identification with game characters may explain differences in attitudes towards victims which were observed. These concepts are discussed in relation to risk and protective factors that may be important in understanding any relationship between violent video game play and less positive attitudes towards victims.
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Sadiki, Lufuno. "The experiences of homeless people as victims of crime in urban and rural settings." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/60415.
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Homeless people are among the most vulnerable people in society, suffering from acute levels of poverty, social exclusion and violence. Homeless people are often seen as a cause of crime; however, they are in fact more likely to be victims of crime rather than perpetrators. Much of the violence experienced by homeless people is committed by members of the public and such incidences generally go unreported. This study set out to determine the nature and extent of victimisation experienced by homeless people living in Pretoria (Gauteng) and the rural areas surrounding Thohoyandou (Limpopo).
The study was descriptive in nature with an exploratory element. Data was collected by means of structured questionnaire administered through face-to-face survey methods. Snowball sampling was used to interview 40 urban and 30 rural homeless people. Data was analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (v23), which allowed for descriptive and inferential analyses between the two settings.
The mean age of respondents was 34.9 years (standard deviation 8.1 years). The vast majority of the respondents were males (95.7%) and African (92.9%) who had been chronically homeless (71.4%). The main reasons for being homeless were due to unemployment (48.0%), being an illegal immigrant (17.7%) and family breakdown (11.4%). Almost half of respondents felt unsafe while living on the streets (45.7%) and feared becoming a victim of crime in the next year (57.1%). The greater proportion of respondents (52.9%) had been victimised since becoming homeless, reporting physical assault (35.1%), grievous bodily harm (10.8%), verbal abuse (5.4%) and theft (70.2%). Statistically significant differences (p < 0.05; r > -0.36) featured between urban and rural homeless people in terms of, among others, fear of assault, theft and harassment. The study further reports on victimisation of homeless people in terms of location, perpetrator characteristics, reporting and responses to victimisation.
Homeless people were victimised more than the general population and were mostly victims of physical assault and theft. Homeless people were more likely to retaliate physically than report their victimisation to the police because they did not trust the police. Considering the results of the study and the literature review, intervention to end homelessness and assist homeless people should focus on providing homeless people with necessary skills to find employment, mediate the relationship between homeless people and the police and strategies should be developed that reunites homeless people with their families.Dissertation (MSW)--University of Pretoria, 2016.
Social Work and Criminology
MSW
Unrestricted
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Wrede, Hanna. "Mellan fyra ögon : En studie om gärningspersoners och brottsoffers upplevelser av medling vid brott." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för socialt arbete - Socialhögskolan, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-60520.
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The object of this study was to meet with offenders and victims of crime who recently participated in victim-offender-mediation, in order to explore their experiences and feelings about it. The method of research was individual qualitative interviews with two offenders and two crime victims. The main questions aimed to find out how the participants felt about the mediation process, what experiences they had about the person they had to face during the meeting, and finally what thoughts they had about the crime and its consequences. In helping to analyze the results of the interviews, Reintegrative Shaming Theory and Theories of attribution were used. The former was used to try to explain the feelings resembling shame that emerged during the meeting, while the latter was helpful in order to understand the descriptions the participants used when they talked about the other person. The results showed that both offenders and victims found the mediation to be helpful, mostly because it made them understand the other person better. Most of them also shared the feeling that they had been able to move on and not think about the crime as much as before.
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Robalo, Teresa Lancry de Albuquerque e. Sousa. "O estatuto da vitima de crimes e o princípio da presunção de vitimização =The crime victim's statute and the principle of presumption of victimization." Thesis, University of Macau, 2018. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b3959545.
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Åström, Karin. "Rättsliga åtgärder mot människohandel : Att skydda offer eller möta hot." Doctoral thesis, Umeå universitet, Juridiska institutionen, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-87076.
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This thesis focuses on legal protection of victims of human trafficking in Sweden. Human trafficking involves the exploitation of often already vulnerable individuals and is a violation of their human rights. Human trafficking is also a threat to state security as a component of transnational organized crime and illegal migration, and has therefore long been a subject of international cooperation. In this thesis international responses to human trafficking are categorized as being focused on two distinct and separately protected parties, namely the individual and the state. The implementation of these international responses have, in the case of Sweden, mainly led to new criminal regulation relating to human trafficking, and in this thesis international as well as Swedish legal measures against human trafficking are analyzed from a victimological perspective. The overall aim is to investigate and analyze whether victims of trafficking have received an enhanced legal protection through Swedish criminal law. The thesis shows that human trafficking is not considered a problem in the Swedish legislative context, and that the international measures to protect victims of trafficking have not been regarded to any great extent. Few victims of trafficking in Sweden are even identified as victims, and measures against human trafficking have largely been associated with measures against prostitution. To legally connect human trafficking with prostitution is, however, problematic because these crimes have different primary protective interests and the victims have different roles in the investigation and litigation process. From a victim's perspective, the categorization of the crime is crucial because the status of plaintiff, as is required for the possibility for financial redress and other legal rights, is assessed in Sweden by how the offense is classified. It is therefore important for the victims of human trafficking to be identified and categorized correctly in order to be defined as plaintiffs and obtain protection under criminal law. As a result of all these factors, the intended enhanced legal protection for victims of trafficking in Sweden is lost.
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Woodruff, Wanda Joy 1956. "Cost-offset analysis of mental health intervention for crime victims in the primary care setting." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/282205.
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Based on financial and billing records, the medical utilization behavior of 105 working adult women members of an employer-sponsored prepaid healthcare plan was examined prospectively over a five-year period. Utilization was evaluated 2.5 years pre- and 2.5 years post-crime for three groups of women: nonvictims (those women reporting no prior history of crime event), victims of noncontact crimes (theft, burglary, attempted crimes), and victims of contact crimes (assault, rape, and rape/assault). Results of interrupted time-series analysis indicated an abrupt, permanent (at least extended) impact for the crime event on use of physician services that was significant for both groups of crime victims (noncontact and contact crimes). The findings were similar across outpatient medical utilization indicators (frequency of visits and associated costs/charges). In terms of percent changes in levels of usage over time, contact crime victims increased physician visits 32-36% over baseline, noncontact crime victims increased 30-50% from baseline, and there was no change in the nonvictim comparison subjects. A second analysis was conducted to investigate the effects of mental health treatment on the use of outpatient medicine. Groups were classified into mental health users and nonusers as well as victims of crime (no crime, noncontact crime, contact crime). Results of interrupted time-series assessment on the effects of psychosocial stress by victimization on medical utilization indicated non-significant changes-over-time for victims of noncontact and contact crimes as well as nonvictim comparison subjects who utilized mental health services during the 5-year study frame. Mental health usage was defined as one or more visits to the Department of Psychiatry within the 5-year measurement time frame. A decline in outpatient utilization from preassault baseline to postassault by 12-17% was observed for victims of contact crimes who received mental health services. The results lended support the hypothesis that increased utilization followed the experience of stress by crime victimization and, that mental health had a buffering role in the moderation of increased utilization following a stressful event. The results suggested that healthcare policy should consider greater access to mental health services and that these services may be most effectively utilized when directed toward special populations of medical patients.
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Larsson-Lindeberg, Carolina. "Ungdomars attityder till homosexuella brottsoffer." Thesis, Mälardalen University, School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-10114.
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I undersökningen om ungdomars attityder mot homosexuella ochheterosexuella brottsoffer utfördes ett experiment där 151 deltagare fick svara på en enkät. Det fanns fyra olika versioner av enkäter där brottsoffret varierade mellan hetero- och homosexuell man men även orten där brottet tog plats varierade mellan liten ort och stor stad. Resultatet visade ingen skillnad i ungdomars empati beroende på brottsoffrets sexuella läggning, dock visade det sig att unga kvinnor har något mer empati än unga män. Resultatet gav inte heller någon skillnad i ungdomars empati beroende på ort. Dock upptäcktes en interaktionseffekt i empati mellan ort och sexualitet som visade att om brottet tog plats i Stockholm kände deltagarna mer empati för en homosexuell man än en heterosexuell man samt att empatin blev motsatt i en liten ort. Resultaten visade ingen signifikant skillnad på empati mellan deltagarnas etnicitet och brottsoffrets sexualitet. Resultaten kan tillämpas som diskussionsmaterial för exempelvis gymnasieskolor.
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Fohring, Stephanie Jane. "Process of victimisation : investigating risk, reporting and service use." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6436.
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Much current research on victimisation focuses primarily on demographic risk factors associated with those who have experienced crime and how these factors affect the likelihood of a person breaching the so called ‘first hurdle’. That is, the probability of moving from a state of non-victim to one of victim. In contrast, this thesis will argue that in order to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of victimisation, it is not only desirable but necessary to move beyond the study of the causes of criminal victimisation and examine the consequences for victims as well as the criminal justice system as a whole. Thus, it seeks to explain the experience of victimisation not just as an isolated incident, but as a process consisting of a number of steps or stages of progression through the criminal justice system, each one building on the last. As such, in addition to considering risk factors, this thesis also examines the decision to report a crime to the police, the use of victim services, as well as the perceived satisfaction with services received. In so doing it explores not only the causes and consequences of crime, but the longer term impact of criminal victimisation. The results presented here are based on the secondary analysis of data from the 2008/9 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey complimented by a data set acquired through in-depth interviews with victims of crime from the Edinburgh Local Authority. Interview data is used to provide a greater depth of meaning to the patterns which emerged from the survey data; lending insight into the psychological processes driving victim decision making and behaviour. This thesis thus provides an example of how a combination of techniques including multi-level modelling and interview analysis, provide a clearer understanding of how victims experience crime. Findings suggest that factors associated with each step of the process are related and may represent a more general underlying pattern of victimisation. It is also argued that by employing multi-level analysis, the thesis provides a more accurate explanation of how respondent’s experiences may differ according to the context in which they live. Finally, the analysis highlights the ongoing importance of emotion in victim decision making and the severity of long term impact. The analysis presented offers new insights into how we understand victimisation as an ongoing experience, as well as demonstrating the necessity of the analytic techniques employed. It is however somewhat confined by the coverage of survey questions and the limited generalizability of the data collected in interviews due to the small sample size. These concerns will be discussed, along with recommendations for victim policy and future research.
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Tolputt, Harriet A. "Serial killing and celebrity : the importance of victim narrative in crime news reporting and its effect on the families of multiple homicide victims." Thesis, Birmingham City University, 2016. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.695293.
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Ndzengu, Nkululeko Christopher. "The war againts organised crime: a critical assessment of South African asset forfeiture law and its impact on redress for victims of crime." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/905.
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This research will be undertaken in the field of both criminal and civil law with particular focus on international interventions in the fight against organized criminal activities, assets forfeitsure in South Africa in general and its treatment of victims of the underlying forfeitsure crimes ("the victims") in assert forfeitsure, more specifically.
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Morgan, Frank. "Initial and repeated burglary victimisation : victim vulnerability, same offender involvement and implications for theory and crime prevention." University of Western Australia. Crime Research Centre, 2007. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0049.
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[Truncated abstract] This thesis examines the phenomenon of repeat burglary and its significance for crime prevention, criminology and victimology. The research program for this thesis was inspired some time ago by the Kirkholt burglary prevention project in the United Kingdom. The reduction of repeat victimisation quickly came to be seen as the key to Kirkholt?s success and by the late twentieth century victim-based crime prevention projects had been implemented in many parts of the world. However, even though these projects have achieved notable success there is still intense debate about why one-time victims are more likely than others to become future victims. This thesis aims to increase understanding of repeat burglary and other forms of repeat victimisation by contributing to its key concepts and its methods of analysis, and by applying these insights in Australian settings. In pursuing this endeavour the thesis links the problems of repeat victimisation with problems in other areas of criminology and social science. In particular the issue of whether prior victimisation is a cause of future victimisation or merely a marker of pre-existing risk has analogs in the areas of offending, of employment, in international disputes, and in many others. Despite this, there has been limited transfer of methods and concepts between repeat victim researchers and researchers in other areas. The thesis examines repeat burglary as a substantive area of research, but its approaches to method, concepts and data are relevant to all repeat victimisation research. ... It draws together criminological theory, conceptual analysis, and a pioneering application of survival analysis to pursue the mechanisms underlying repeat burglary in a Perth suburb. In doing so it illuminates issues about the relative power of state dependence and heterogeneity explanations of repeat burglary and arrives at substantive results that in some aspects differ from findings in the United Kingdom. This section also argues that the concept of state dependence commonly adopted is iv unnecessarily constraining and that a broader concept can explain some potentially conflicting findings of repeat victimisation research. Section 3 is an evaluation of a victim-focused burglary prevention initiative in Adelaide one of two nationally supported pilot projects. Section 4 examines carefully the claimed advantages of victim-focused crime prevention for distributing burglary prevention resources in an efficient and equitable way. It examines evidence concerning the differential capacity and willingness of victims to take effective preventive action and the need for both individual and collective support for effective preventive initiatives. Section 5 concludes the thesis by arguing first that the merging of victim support and crime prevention is not as simple as is sometimes claimed. It also argues that crime prevention needs to take into account more than criminological theory if it is to be effective. An important argument of the conclusion is that criminological imagination has been overly limited in comprehending repeat victimisation, and it explores the ways in which criminological research still struggles to appreciate the importance of the victim for theory and crime prevention. It also argues that the implications of repeat victimisation have yet to be fully developed and accepted. Fuller details of the thesis structure are given at the end of the introduction.
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Choudhary, Ekta. "Male sexual violence victimization definitions, epidemiological profile, and psychological impact /." Morgantown, W. Va. : [West Virginia University Libraries], 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10450/10297.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2009.Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 165 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 146-165).
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Startup, Radojka. "Damaging females : representations of women as victims and perpetrators of crime in the mid-nineteenth century." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2000. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1348856/.
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This thesis explores, and seeks an historical interpretation of, representations of women both as victims and perpetrators of crime in the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Moving beyond how criminal offences were defined, perceived and disciplined, the analysis highlights their broader social and cultural contexts and effects. Focusing primarily on media accounts and literary narratives of "sensational" and serious cases, it argues that the treatment of crimes of spousal murder, sexual violence and infanticide can be read for cultural and political meanings. At a time when the technological and commercial abilities to satisfy the public appetite for crime stories were rapidly expanding, these narratives became a significant arena in which social preoccupations, anxieties, and conflicts were symbolically explored. As forms of cultural production, therefore, crime narratives constituted, communicated and contested social and political values relating, for example, to issues of class and gender, morality and character, public order and the body. At the heart of this study, therefore, lies the opportunity to explore how the female figures of such accounts, whether murdering women or rape victims, related to their wider world. Unlike court proceedings and legal records, which were accessed by a small minority only, many of the sources on which this analysis is based were produced for popular consumption; they were available to an increasing audience. Thus, local newspaper reporting of Assizes cases are examined alongside the national press, the writings of middle class reformers and social commentators, and a range of literary texts including broadsides, melodramas, "respectable" novels and cheap, sensational fiction. Graphic illustration provides an additional site of representation, particularly influential as it could be read by everyone including the wholly illiterate. However, crime narratives cannot be treated as simple windows into the past - they constitute particularly constructed images, fashioned in accordance with journalistic practices, commercial enterprise and literary conventions as well as the cultural and power dynamics of the period. Female criminals and victims of crime in early Victorian society were defined as damaging and damaged; in order to explore the wider social meaning of these representations close textual analysis of primary sources is allied with a detailed identification and contextualisation of the specificities of the different narrative forms.
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Marandos, Ourania. "The development of a psychometric scale for the assessment of emotional vulnerability in victims of crime." Thesis, University of York, 2005. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/14187/.
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This thesis explores the psychological correlates of victim isation and, in particular, the assessment and treatment of psychological distress in victims of crime. The thesis begins with a systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions in reducing psychological symptoms in victims of crime. The focus of the thesis, thereafter, is on the development of a psychometric scale to assist criminal justice practitioners in the assessment of emotional vulnerability in victims of crime. An initial item pool was generated from victims' responses to an open-ended questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis of the preliminary scale, which was administered to a large sample of victims of crime, uncovered two factors, which were labelled Emotional Vulnerability and Crime-Specific Anger. Both subscales demonstrated high internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The factor structure of the new scale, labelled the Victim Reactions Scale, was confirmed in a new sample of victims of crime using structural equation modelling techniques. The subscales were found to correlate meaningfully with conceptually similar constructs. The Emotional Vulnerability scale demonstrated strong correlations with measures of posttraumatic stress disorder and anxiety. Crime-Specific Anger was associated with measures of anger and in the subsample of male victims also demonstrated substantial correlations with measures of psychological distress. An experimental study showed that high scores on the Emotional Vulnerability scale were strongly related to an attentional bias towards crime-related threat words. Emotional Vulnerability also demonstrated associations with demographic and victimisation variables, which were consistent with the literature on victims of crime. In conclusion, this thesis presents evidence for the reliability and construct validity of a new victim-specific psychometric scale, which is thought to measure emotional vulnerability and anger in relation to a criminal victimisation experience. The Victim Reactions Scale, in particular the Emotional Vulnerability subscale, could potentially be used within the criminal justice system to identify victims of crime who are in need of more in depth psychological assessment and treatment.
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Carr, Christie Arine. "Christian Fundamentalism, Authoritarianism, and Attitudes toward Rape Victims." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2006. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/2206.
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This study focused on the relationship of five variables: rape myth acceptance, attitudes toward rape victims, sex roles, authoritarianism, and Christian fundamentalism. Also, differences between men and women were compared. The study was conducted at East Tennessee State University, and 100 people participated. Contrary to past research, Christian fundamentalism was not a significant predictor of rape myth acceptance or attitudes towards rape victims, but there were significant relationships between all of the other variables. Men were found to be more accepting of rape myths and had a more negative view of rape victims than did women. Implications of these findings, future research ideas, and possible rape-awareness educational programs are discussed.