This special issue for the American Society of Criminology, Division of Victimology focuses on the important consideration of vulnerable victimizations. As guest editors, our primary goal in this endeavor is to showcase research centered on individuals and/or populations that, due to their status, have less power in society, are socially controlled in unique ways in the criminal–legal system, or are members of marginalized groups with specialized considerations surrounding their victimization experiences. Each of these selections in the special issue provide our discipline relevant scholarship on the overall victimization experience, and at the same time, are also centered on the victimization experiences of historically ignored and/or marginalized groups. While doing so we also seek to highlight both qualitative and quantitative methodologies in the current issue and employ a modality of theoretical lenses to examine these questions.
We open the special issue exploring vulnerable victimizations within the carceral setting. First Terry’s article examines the in-depth experiences of young women in a rural prison setting, one the author notes is “a destination most view as sterile, uninviting, and revictimizing” for these criminally involved young women who were also often victimized in their communities, creating “an abuse to prison pipeline.” In the second selection, Melander and Garni examine gender-based violence among U.S. asylum seekers. The authors use ethnographic fieldwork to investigate the gendered victimization experiences of immigrant girls and women seeking asylum in the United States. Next, Jones, Worthen, Heim, Sharp, and McLeod consider a feminist life-course perspective to examine the adverse childhood experiences of criminally involved Native American women demonstrating that coercive control impacts criminally involved Native American and non-Native American women in distinctive ways.
We then transition to explore vulnerable victimizations outside the carceral setting – including how gender identity, race/ethnicity, and sexuality may impact victimization experiences in unique ways experience victimization. In an article by Fissel, Butler, Fisher, and Gildea, intimate partner cyber abuse is examined by prevalence rate and frequency of occurrence across different types of intimate partner relationships. The authors consider how individuals in heterosexual and non-heterosexual relationships differ in cyber victimization across gender identification and find some notable predictors within these demographic differences. Afterward, an article by Ratajczak and Teut explores Title IX policy adopting a feminist and queer perspective to discuss how the expansion of Title IX protections to transgender and gender non-conforming students can help protect them against discrimination. Next, Outlaw, Menard, Teasdale, and Bradley build upon our understanding of the increased prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) risk for sexual minorities, by analyzing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. The authors determine that individuals who are bisexual are substantially more at risk for IPV than their heterosexual counterparts, and routine activities and stigma-related factors are sizable predictors of this.
This special issue features additional articles that investigate the unique victimization experiences of individuals who are LGBTQ+. Merken, Slakoff, Aujla, and Morton explore this topic using the experiences of IPV service providers in their work with transgender and immigrant women employing an intersectional approach. The authors provided vignettes to IPV service providers and analyzed their responses to better understand the perspective of these providers. Additionally, Rogers Isom, and Rader examine the concept of fear of crime for LGBTQ+ college students. The authors take an intersectional approach and use the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA) data to analyze a sample of nearly 28,000 students (over 18% of which identify as LGBTQ+). In this article, the authors expand our understanding of the fear of crime literature by investigating both gender and sexual identity among college students.
The final two selections are focused on vulnerable individuals with specific racial/ethnic considerations. First, Lee, Nam, and Tessler address the important and timely issue of Asian-American victimization that has only increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, the authors further our understanding of violent and nonviolent crime victimization for Asian-Americans/Pacific Islanders using a sample of nearly 17,000 individuals from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and explore predictors of crime victimization for this group. In the final article, Chen analyzes a sample of 1,200 middle-school students in rural China to consider if parental migration impacts children’s exposure to punishment and neglect. The author examines the victimization experiences of these vulnerable youth and discusses how caretaking arrangements are an important consideration in the development of culturally sensitive services for this “highly marginalized group.”
Overall, this special issue comes at a particularly alarming time in our society for vulnerable groups. Victimization of vulnerable individuals is increasing at a moment when marginalized groups continue to confront legislative and policy reforms that would undermine their liberty. Perhaps it is as important now, as it has ever been, for the field of victimology to consider those who historically may not have the loudest (or any) voice to spotlight and investigate their victimization experiences. We hope that this special issue will not only provide a contribution to the field by expanding our understanding of the empirical literature but also provide inspiration for action to assist these vulnerable victims. As social scientists we are uniquely positioned to not only examine these issues empirically but to educate our students and the public on the victimization experiences of these vulnerable individuals, and to become more civically engaged citizens surrounding vulnerable victimizations ourselves.
In closing, I appreciate the time and effort of all the authors in this special issue. We also would like to thank the Editors and Editorial Board of Victim and Offenders for working with us on this special issue.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).