The privilege of working in the criminal justice community is interaction with a variety
of stakeholders, such as judges, probation officers, and, of course, offenders. However,
there are others who play an integral part of the system, yet are often overlooked
in the process of trying to punish and treat the offenders: the victims. Victims of crime
include every combination of race, sex, religion, age, and sexual orientation. They
range from the highly educated to someone with barely a third-grade education. They
are white-collar or blue-collar workers, or the unemployed. Furthermore, victims of
crime can also be offenders as well.
The purpose of this text is to explore the world of victimology through the lens
of not only who is victimized but also how they are victimized. In addition, our text
will discuss the history of victim advocacy and what we are doing now to help victims
of crime, and what is still left to do. Most importantly, we want students to be able
to critically apply this information through active learning exercises. We understand
that instructors will choose to teach this class in very different ways, and there are
online resources available to them to accomplish various goals. Some of the students
who use this book will become victim advocates, and some may have other direct or
indirect interactions with victims of various types of crime. Our goal is to help them
emerge from this literature with better insight into this strong, yet fragile group of
individuals who deserve a voice.