The Victim Precipitation Theory

Do victim precipitation theories mean victim blaming? Explain and evaluate.

1.0 Introduction of victim precipitation

Victim precipitation theories generally involve an explanation of how an individual’s behavior may contribute to his or her own victimization. In future the victim precipitation is behavior by a victim that initiates subsequent behavior of the victimizer and the degree to which victim is responsible for own victimization

Early attempts at studying victim behavior involved the development of typologies that allowed victimol-ogists to determine who was most responsible for the criminal incident offender or victim. For instance,

Wolfgang first introduced the formal concept of victim precipitation in his seminal work on homicide in 1958 when he argued that, in some instances, the victim may initiate the behavior of the victimizer .

Mendelsohn calls the victim and his offender the ‘Penal couple '. The victim offender relationship may contain origin of victimization. The inhibitions and offender may have seemed to change according to the type of qualities the victim possesses. The attitude and behaviour of the victim influences the offender and which makes possible the criminal act.

The willingness of the victim to commit an offence upon him or her makes the offender legally stronger. The consent of the victims whom the law intended to protect encourages the offender. Victim solicitation even more than victim’s consent, confers on the act a kind of legitimacy