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Relationship Between Sellin And Wolfgang's Typology Of Victimization

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INTRODUCTION
Over the course of history, multiple theories have been developed over time to determine the relationship between the offender and the victim. One of these theories is Sellin and Wolfgang’s Typology of Victimization, which states that victims are subjected to their victimization depending on the situations that they are in. “With the emergence and popularity of positivism, criminals were assumed to be differentiated from others in the population...appeared logically consistent with this stance...Scarcely mentioned in that work is the would-be victim as an active agent making choices that affect criminal opportunity—instead, in these theories, criminals made their own opportunities,” (Berg and Schreck 2022). This meant that theories …show more content…

Sellin and Wolfgang’s theory likely gained this traction for not faulting the victim for a crime, as there would have been little to no observable or statistical information proving that offenders and victims had connectable behavior. On the other hand, it would be easy for scholars to observe that offenders behaved differently from victims through their knowledge of the offender previously committing a crime, proving their reasonable belief that offenders are completely different from victims and are solely responsible for a crime. Due to the rise of positivism, Sellin and Wolfgang’s Typology of Victimization, a theory based on victimization through situations the victim is put in, rose in credibility and usage by many scholars to determine the relationship between the offender …show more content…

Through victim blaming, society and the criminal justice process holds the victim accountable for the charges that are being pressed against the offender despite them having no fault. In many cases, victim blaming even contributes to the criminal justice process not occurring at all. An example of this would be in cases of sexual assault and rape. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, “nearly 80 percent of rapes and sexual assaults go unreported...The reality is, it’s very common for sexual assault survivors - most frequently, women - to decline to report the offense to police,” (Kimble 2018). In fact, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, or RAINN, found that only 5.3% of rape and sexual assault offenders will face any prosecution at all, with only 2.5% being imprisoned for their crimes. RAINN also found that the main reason a survivor chose not to report their crime was due to them fearing retaliation from the offender and society through means like being blamed for the crimes committed against them, with 20% of cases being this way. This high rate of fear that survivors have of being blamed by society has prevented criminal prosecution from taking place against rape and sexual assault

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One of the main reasons many victims choose not to report sexual assault is distrust in law enforcement and the belief that nothing would be done to help them. A report done by the Sexual Assault Among Latinas Study showed that many victims spoke with their families about what happened, but very few victims sought help from the criminal justice department. According to the study, only 6.6% of the women involved sought help from law enforcement, and 33%

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In the book, Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in College Town, by Jon Krakauer, the reader delves into how rape and sexual assault are treated in the town of Missoula, and the University of Montana. As the reader, we are informed on how the university, the police department, the district attorney’s office, and the community reacted to these rape and sexual assault allegations. We see how the criminal justice system has failed the victims, and are forced to live with what happened to them, while their assailants are free of any burden. The law is set in place to protect people from victimization, but when the men, in this book, are not legally held accountable, then any woman, or man, is more susceptible to victimization. It is interesting

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However, even though they are usually not the ones at fault, nothing is ever said about the event. In a report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, it was found that 75 to 77 percent of sexual assaults, attempted rapes, and completed rapes were never reported (“Sexual Assault and Rapes”). Furthermore, the blame of the whole event was never put on the person responsible. Instead, the victim was blamed for not denying the advances, or for not making themselves clearer in their intents(“Sexual Assault and Rapes”). This huge chip to carry often leaves the victims feeling isolated, scared, full of shame, depressed, and with a low self-esteem(“Sexual Assault and Rapes”).

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The correlation from the countries highlighted with the issue at hand is society’s global response, which is ignoring the issue. Victims are have self-learned through society’s response towards sexual assault and rape is to keep quiet and to be ashamed that it happened to them. Victim’s result to blaming themselves and thinking things such as: “I drank to much”, “It happened because of what I was wearing”, or “I didn’t fight back hard enough”. In countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Dar Fur sexual assault and rape cases are not talked about or ever recognized, but used as a weapon of war. In Spain and the United States such cases can be brought to trail but are extremely hard to try in court.

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It is estimated in the U.S that rape or attempted rape occurs every five minutes. It is documented that 46% of criminals charged for rape become apprehended within three years of being released for different criminal activity.

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The disadvantage of this approach is the fact that it does not focus on the victim instead it justifies the offender’s actions by regarding them as patients and victims of dysfunctional societies Restitution

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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.

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