PACIFIC SOUTHBAY COLLEGE, INC

Purok Carmenville, Calumpang, General Santos City

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN CRIMINOLOGY
MODULE NO. 4
2NDTerm, 1ST Semester, SY 2020-2021

Descriptive Title : HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND VICTIMOLOGY

Course Credit : 3 units
Class Schedule : Monday-Friday (Online and Modular)
Room : Google Classrrom
Instructor : Jayson Cuamag Cuico, Rcrim
Contact Details : jayco.rcriminologist@gmail.com/ 09103435707

Course Description: The course covers the study on human behavior with emphasis on the
concept of human development and abnormal behavior. It includes strategies and approaches
for handling different kinds of abnormal behavior in relation to law enforcement and criminal
proceedings. It also includes the study of victimization, the role of community and techniques in
assisting offenders reintegration and victims recovery.

Chapter IV. VICTIMOLOGY

Overview
Victimology is the social scientific of criminal victimization. As a sub-field of
criminology (the social scientific study of crime), it too seeks to explain crime, but
through more of a focus on the victims of crime. This course will cover three general
inter-related areas. One is research and theory on victimization. Here, you will learn
about rates of victimization and how they differ according to social categories (race,
ethnicity, age, class, gender, etc,), theories that explain differential victimization (of
individuals and social categories, and empirical tests of these theories. The second area
is the consequences of victimization. Here, you will learn mostly about the impact of
criminal victimization upon individuals mental (and physical) health, but also the macro
social costs of victimization (including economic). The third area is practicalresponses to
victimization. Here you will learn about the history and development of the victims rights
movement”, as well as social policy and services aimed at restoring victims. To well in

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Instructor: JAYSON C. CUICO, R.Crim
Registered Criminologist
this course, you will not only need to absorb information, but you must apply your own
creative, critical thinking as well.

Essay:

1. How do you understand the word offender and the word victim?

2. In your own idea/opinion, what are the programs of the government to protect the
victim?

Historical background of Victimology

Historically, the Latin term ‘victima’ was used to described individuals or animals
whose lives were destined to be sacrificed to please a deity. It did not necessarily imply
pain or suffering only a sacrificial role. “Victimology” arose in Europe after World War II,
primarily to seek to understand the criminal-victim relationship. Early victimology theory
posited that victim attitudes and conduct are among the causes of criminal.

In the 19th century, the word victim became connected with the notion of harm or
loss in general (Spalek 2006). In the modern criminal justice system, the word victim
has come to describe any person who has experienced injury, loss, or hardship due to
the illegal action of another individual, group or organization (Karmen 2004).

As Tokiwa University (Japan) Professsor of Criminology and Victimology John

Dusssich noted, “As a graduate student in 1962, I had the privilege of being a student of
Stephen Schafer who was a victimologists. He first spoke about victimlogy in his class
on criminological theory. It was the first time that he ever gave a lecture in this country
and we became friends after that the interest in victimology correlated with increasing
concern about crime in America in the late 1060s. It is perhaps no coincidence that the
precursor to Dr. Schafer’s book was a study he conducted for the US Department of
Health, education, and welfare. The crime wave of the time led to the formation of the
President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the administration of justice in 1966,
which conducted the first national victimization surveys that, in turn showed that

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Instructor: JAYSON C. CUICO, R.Crim
Registered Criminologist
victimization rates were far higher than shown in law enforcement figures-and that many
non-reporting victims acted out distrust of the justice system. This captured the attention
of researchers who began to examine the impact of crime on victims, as well as victim
disillusionment with the system.

According to the federal bureau of investigation (FBI), between the 1970’s and
1980’s just after the civil rights movement, there was increased awareness about
victims. In 1972, the FBI formed the Behavioral Science unit (BSU) to study the
relationships between the offender, the victims and group dynamics in society.

What is Victimology?

Victimology is the study of the relationship between the victim and the
perpetrator. Likewise it is the “scientific study of physical, emotional, and financial harm
people suffer because of illegal activities. It is the study of the victim, including offender
and society. Furthermore, it is a social structural way of viewing crime and the law and
the criminal and the victim.

Victimology is the study of victimization, including the relationships between

victims and offenders, the interactions between victims and the criminal justice system-
that is, the police and the courts, and correction officials-and the connection between
victims and other social groups and institutions, such as the media, businesses, and
social movements. Victimology is, however, not restricted to the study of victims of
crime alone but may include other forms of human rights violation.

To understand this concept, first we must understand what the terms victim and
perpetrator mean. The victim is a person who has been harmed by a perpetrator. A
victim is a person who suffers direct or threatened physical, emotional or financial harm
as a result of an act by someone else, which is a crime. A victim of misplaced
confidence; a victim of swindler; and a victim of an optical illusion; a person or animal
sacrificed or regarded as sacrificed: war victims living creature sacrificed in religious
rites. A living being sacrificed to a deity or in the performance of a religious rite.

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Instructor: JAYSON C. CUICO, R.Crim
Registered Criminologist
 The perpetrator, also known as the offender, is an individual who has
committed the crime against the victim. Additionally, he is an aggressor, assailant,
criminal, evil doer, felon, lawbreaker, malefactor, malfeasant, one implicated in the
commission of a crime, one who breaks the law, one who commits a crime, peccans,
sinner, transgressor, violator, wrongdoer. Law enforcement agencies use the study of
victimology and the theories of victimology to determine why the victim was targeted by
the offender.

Subsequently, some general facts have been gathered about victimization.

 Victimization is more likely at night (6:00 pm to 6:00 am). Personal larceny is

more common during the day, with more serious crime occurring at night.
 Crime occurs more in open public areas, although rapes and simple assaults
tend to occur in homes.
 Crime is most frequent in central city areas.
 Western urban areas have the highest crime rates, while the northeast rural
areas have the lowest.
 The national crime survey syndicates that 25% of US households have at least
one individual who was victimized in some way during the past year.
 Personal theft is very common. About 99% of American will be the victim of
personal theft at some time in their lives, and 87% will be a theft victim three or
more times.
 Men are twice as likely as women to be victims of robbery and assault. The
violent victimization rate for females has been fairly stable, but there has been a
20% increase for males in the last 15 years.
 Victim risk diminishes rapidly after age 25. Contrary to popular belief,
grandparents are safer than their grandchildren.
 Unmarried/never married people are more likely to be victims than the married or
widowed.

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Instructor: JAYSON C. CUICO, R.Crim
Registered Criminologist
  The poor are more likely to be victims of crime. They are far more likely to be
victims of violent crime, while the middle class are more likely to be victims of
property crime.
 African Americans are victimized at the highest rates. Crime tends to be intra-
racial (criminal and victims of the same race) rather than interracial (criminal and
victim of different races). About 75% of crime is intra-racial.
 Strangers commit about 60% of violent crimes. However, females are more likely
to know their assailants.
 In some studies, over half of offenders report being under the influence of alcohol
and or other drugs when they committed the offense resulting in incarceration.
 The characteristics of those most likely to be victimized might be summarized as:
young, black, urban, poor and male.

Essay:

1. Discuss the importance of studying victimology?

2. Discuss the possible contributions of this subject to the Law Enforcement

Administration?

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Instructor: JAYSON C. CUICO, R.Crim
Registered Criminologist