ABSTRACT

The concept of ‘vulnerability’ is, similar to the concept of ‘community’, one whose boundaries and distinct constituent parts are difficult to define. Participating offenders have gained in both ‘human’ and ‘social’ capital within a specific community of care, concern and accountability which recognises that vulnerability needs to be addressed as part of rehabilitative and reintegrative case management procedure. According to Fineman’s vulnerability theory, the human condition is ‘one of universal and continuous vulnerability’, and one wherein ’the State is theorized as the legitimate governing entity and tasked with a responsibility to establish and monitor social institutions and relationships that facilitate the acquisition of individual and social resilience’. A challenge to the formal criminal justice narrative and an analysis and critique of the more conventional ‘vulnerable victim’ discourse can provide a basis for a better understanding of crime and the harm caused by illegal acts.