HB One

Link to the Discussion Board for Module 1: Week 1.

Initial Post: Watch Rape in the Fields and read chapters 1-3 before you answer the question initially. Address the issues of the victims depicted in the documentary in context of the theoretical and statistical concepts established in the chapters.
Video : http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/rape-in-the-fields/

Video Transcript: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/social-issues/rape-in-the-fields/transcript-46/

Supporting Documents for Rape In the Fields:

Response Posts: Read chapters 4-5 before you respond to others; read the posts of other learners and respond to at least two other learners. Comment on the responses of others and explain the differential risks and responsibilities of these victims.

Instructions: Utilize this week’s assigned readings and viewings to answer the discussion question. Your initial post is due at 11:59 PM on Wednesday. This post should be submitted as a comprehensive essay. Depending on the succinctness of your writing style, 3-6 paragraphs should be necessary to fully explore the points raised. Use proper citations and APA format in your writing.

Then, by Sunday at 11:59 PM, read the posts of your classmates and respond to at least two. Use the guidelines noted in the question to formulate your responses. These can be shorter (1-2 paragraphs), but they also need to be substantive and include references to, and citations from, the readings.

JUS66772: Lecture 1-Week 1 Transcript What is Victimology? Victimization is an interpersonal relationship that causes injury or harm to a person or group. While not all acts of victimization are based on illegal activity, most of our focus will be on crime-based victimization. We will, however, consider an expansion of victimization—and have readings on war victims, animals who are abused, and other expanded categories in order to consider whether the designation of crime is necessary for assessing victimization. Victimology is the scientific study of the physical, emotional, and financial harm people suffer because of illegal activities. Victimologists study the ways in which crime victims are harmed, including physical injury, psychological trauma, and financial loss. They want to find out whether the injured parties are effectively assisted, served, accommodated, rehabilitated, and educated to avoid further trouble. Further, victimologists are curious to determine the extent to which the plight of persons harmed by criminals is being ignored, neglected, or exploited by lawmakers, governmental agencies, and society in general. Victimologists endeavor to examine these topics and incidents from a social science perspective. Objectivity is the hallmark of any social science endeavor and requires that the observer be fair, open-minded, even-handed, dispassionate, neutral, and unbiased. Victimologists must be mindful that real-life confrontations do not consistently generate simple clear-cut cases that neatly fall into the dichotomies of good versus evil or innocence versus guilt. In many cases, the people officially designated as the victims by police and prosecutors could arguably be considered wrongdoers. Often, different interpretations of the facts can lead to sharply divergent conclusions about who is genuinely the victim and who is the victimizer, so one must be extremely careful in responding. The confusion created by the unrealistically simple labels of “victim” and “criminal” underscores the need for objectivity. To further complicate matters, impartiality is called for when injured parties turn out to be offenders themselves. Predatory persons prey upon each other as well as upon innocent members of the general public. Of course, it is possible for people engaged in illegal activities to be genuine victims, deserving of protection and redress through the courts. Often the harms they suffer can be more harmful than the offenses they commit. Striving for objectivity is also important because victimologists do not limit their studies to the clashes between victims and offenders. They are also very interested in the social reaction to victimization. Crime victims can and do become embroiled in conflicts with persons or groups besides the perpetrators who have directly inflicted injuries or loss. Victims of highly publicized crimes are often outraged by the way the news media portrays them. Families of homicide victims often complain about sensationalism. It is also not uncommon for an organization to exploit a victim for publicity, changes in the law, monetary allocations, or charitable contributions. Although victimology is an interdisciplinary field that benefits from the contributions of a host of other disciplines, it is best conceived of academically as an area of specialization within criminology and criminal justice. Even though victimology is a rapidly evolving sub-discipline, it remains parallel to criminology in many respects. For example, criminologists ask why certain individuals become involved in lawbreaking while others do not. Victimologists ask why some individuals, households, and entities are targeted while other are not. Criminology and victimology differ in several important ways. Criminology is several hundred years old, whereas victimology is only several decades old. Criminologists agree they should limit their studies to illegal activities. Victimologists have not reached a consensus about the appropriate boundaries to the field. The boundary between victimology and criminology, however, is not always clear-cut. Often the two overlap. A number of academic orientations enrich victimology. Victimologists who pursue a mental health or forensic psychological orientation explore how victims react to their misfortunes. Victimologists who take a historical perspective trace developments from the past to better understand the present, while those who proceed from an economic perspective try to measure individual and collective costs, losses, and expenses that result from criminal activities. Victimology does not have the distinct schools of thought that divide criminologists into opposing camps. However, in both criminology and victimology, political ideologies can play a significant role in influencing the choice of research topics and in shaping policy recommendations. As an example, consider the case of a drug addict who steals to support his habit. Is he a “criminal” who rationally decides to commit crimes, or is he a “victim” of his addiction? The definition one chooses can influence the interpretation of research and the formation of policies.

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HB One

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