ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how gender relates to victimisation. The example of rape is used to illustrate the influences of feminist voices in understanding of victimisation. The victim typologies developed by Von Hentig and Mendelsohn in the 1940s and 1950s provide a useful starting point. Rumgay uses the concept of the 'victimised offender' to identify women's needs arising from their legacy of victimisation. The early attempts to differentiate victims from non-victims now manifests in a hierarchy of victimisation. Feminist influences have exposed the serious forms of victimisation that take place in the domestic sphere. MacKinnon's feminist philosophy suggests that gender-neutrality simply equates to the male standard where masculinity and maleness are the yardsticks against which judgements of others are made. Some evidence from feminist inspired critiques of child protection and safeguarding suggest non- abusing female adults - mothers - are framed as non-protecting.
