ABSTRACT
Victimisation experience significantly affects the lives of those involved. Research in Scotland identified that 20 per cent of victim respondents reported still being preoccupied with their victimisation experience even twelve months after it occurred (MacLeod et al. 1996). Additionally, the response of others to the victim can have as great an effect as the original victimisation experience. Thus it is clearly important to explore public attitudes to victims of crime and to probe what factors affect these attitudes. It is also crucial to explore how attitudes to victims impact on judgments of victims and to consider the effect this can have on the criminal justice process.
