ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the impact of crime upon people's lives. The specifics of criminal victimisation concern the importance of intent, and the moral and ethical corollaries of the experience of injustice. The impact of crime is a balance between the severity of injury and the level of resilience. Resilience is not just a resource to help cope with harm but a form of agency that reminds that the victims of crime should not be assumed or treated as passive, subordinate or powerless. victimologists have focused on the distribution, treatment and effects upon crime victims. Acknowledging the ontological divide between individual and idiosyncratic experience and general and 'reasonable' rules lies at the core of radical victimology. Within victimology the presentation of victims as essentially powerless and passive has been recognised as potentially damaging and is best articulated in relation to the patriarchal connotation of victimhood, especially as it applies to the female victims of violence.
