On Victimology and Victimization

Abstract

Victimology is, in literal translation, "the science of the victim" (from the Latin victima). Having recently been developed to a considerable degree in many countries of the world, victimology has assembled interesting empirical data and developed a number of theoretical propositions on the personality and behavior of persons who have suffered from crimes, their relationships with the criminals, and the role of the victim in the genesis of the crime. At the same time, sufficient clarity does not exist on the matter of the subject area of victimology, its relationship to disciplines on which it abuts, and the theoretical foundations and principal lines of victimological research. Therefore the question of what constitutes victimology remains pressing, and the answer to it cannot be unambiguous, particularly if one considers the fundamental difference between bourgeois and socialist criminology.