ABSTRACT
Hazelwood and Napier (2004) argued that when it comes to staged crime scenes, investigators have to rely the study of the victim and the study of the scene to help move the investigation forward. e more focus placed on studying the victim in any homicide case, the more that can be discovered about the crime and the oender. Research has shown that most victims of staged scenes are female murdered by male oenders. Traditional homicide investigation has primarily focused on the suspect so much that no one knows who the victim was. at is not to say that suspectology is not important or working toward developing a suspect based on the totality of evidence, but focusing solely on the suspect or closing any case “by arrest” is a misstep that is oen made with grave consequences. More recently, the paradigm shi toward viewing homicide investigation as a system and analyzing the role the victim plays within that system is where this aspect of criminology is focused today (Wilcox, 2010). e breadth and depth of victimology is quite vast and could not possibly be thoroughly discussed in one chapter alone, but for the purpose of introducing the concept of victimology toward beginning to gain insight into crime scene staging in relation to oenders and their victims, how victims become victims, and why victims become victims, an overview of victimology is appropriate and required.
