PCE2270

Victimology

Arthur Veno

8 points
* 3 hours per week
* First semester
* Caulfield
* Prohibited combination: PCE1270

Objectives On successful completion of this subject, students will be expected to have gained a critical understanding of the victim in historical and current social perspectives. The student should be able to critically analyse victim (and crime) statistics; understand victim, offender, community or system blaming and its relationship to definitions of crime and its prevention; delineate the various strategies to alleviate victim trauma in the criminal justice system; identify corporate and state victimisation.

Synopsis This subject analyses the concept of the victim in society. The historical and current conceptions of the victim in the criminal justice system, war/colonisation and corporations is surveyed by academic materials, field visits and guest speakers working in the area. Victim- offender mediation is identified and discussed as is crime prevention. Community-based agencies are identified and analysed in the context of theoretical perspectives of blame, shame and reintegration.

Assessment Field visit analysis (3000 words): 40%
* Tutorial/discussion leadership: 20%
* Examination (2 hours): 40%

Recommended texts

Reader available for purchase
Walklate S Victimology: The victim and the criminal justice process Unwin Hyman, 1989
World Wide Web readings