ABSTRACT

This second edition of the Handbook of Victims and Victimology presents a comprehensively revised and updated set of essays, bringing together internationally recognised scholars and practitioners to offer substantial research informed overviews within their specialist fields of investigation. This handbook is divided into five parts, with each part addressing a different theme within victimology:

  • Part I offers a scene-setting exploration of new developments in the field, enduring issues that remain relatively unchanged and the gaps and traps within the contemporary victimological agenda
  • Part II examines of the complex dimensions to victim experiences as structured by gender, age, ethnicity, sexuality and intersectionality
  • Part III reflects on the problems and possibilities of formulating policy responses in the light of the changing appreciation of the nature and extent of victimhood
  • Part IV focused on the value of a comparative lens and the problems and possibilities of victim policies when seen through this lens, explored along three geographical axes: Europe, Australia and Asia
  • Part V considers other ways of thinking about who counts as a victim and what counts as victimhood and extends the boundaries of the victimological imagination outward

Building on the success of the previous edition, this book provides an international focus on cutting-edge issues in the field of victimology. Including brand new chapters on intersectionality, child victims, sexuality, hate crime and crimes of the powerful, this handbook is essential reading for students and academics studying victims and victimology and an essential reference tool for those working within the victim support environment.

chapter |8 pages

Introduction and overview

part I|4 pages

Perspectives on victims and victimisation

chapter 1|17 pages

Setting the scene

A question of history 1

chapter 3|18 pages

The social epidemiology of crime victimization

The paradox of prevention

chapter 4|26 pages

The impact of crime

Victimisation, harm and resilience

part II|4 pages

Victims, victimology and ‘difference’

chapter 7|15 pages

Victims of hate crime

chapter 8|18 pages

Sexuality and victimisation

part III|6 pages

Policy directions and service delivery

chapter 11|18 pages

The victim in court

chapter 12|18 pages

Restorative justice and victims of crime

Directions and developments

part IV|6 pages

Comparative perspectives

chapter 14|18 pages

A glass half full, or half empty?

On the implementation of the EU’s Victims Directive regarding police reception and specialized support

chapter 15|15 pages

Victims support in policy and legal process in Australia

Still an ambivalent and contested space

chapter 16|21 pages

Looking into Asia

Managing crime through victim policy?

part V|4 pages

Other visions of victimisation and victimology

chapter 17|15 pages

Crime as a social relation of power

Reframing the ‘ideal victim’ of corporate crimes

chapter 18|16 pages

We are all complicit

Victimization and crimes of the powerful

chapter 19|15 pages

Cultural victimology revisited

Synergies of risk, fear and resilience

chapter |6 pages

Conclusion

Developing an agenda for a (critical) victimology