Certain Questions of the Criminological Concept of the Definition of «Victim of a Crime»

Keywords: victim mentality, victimisation, victim of a crime, victimological theories

Abstract

The article gives an analysis of the views of works of the Ukrainian and foreign scientists in the field of some victimological theories, in particular — definition «victim of a crime». Attention applies on the special value of provocative behavior of the victim in a case of commission of some crimes. Attention is drawn to the fact that provocative behavior is not only important for conducting a criminological analysis of a crime victim, but for qualification of some crimes too (for example — articles no. 118 and no. 124 of the criminal code of Ukraine). To achieve the objectives of the article, studies of criminologists were analyzed. Researches of scientists, who considered the problem of defining a «victim of crime» in terms of psychology, sociology, etc. were also analyzed. It has been concluded that criminological victimology (as an integral part of criminology) is a relatively new science. This situation is explained by the lack of interest of researchers in concepts of «victim mentality», «victimisation», «victim of a crime» till to the late 1940s 20th century. The conclusion was made about regularities between humanistic trends in the world and formation of the concept of "victim of crime" in the middle of the twentieth century. The conclusions are based on the study of the importance of victimological teaching in modern criminology science. Most of them are used by modern criminology scientists’ definitions of «victim of a crime». Attention is drawn to the ambiguity of understanding definition «victim of a crime». This is because some scientists suggest identifying «victim of a crime» with a «person, who suffered from the crime». In our opinion, his understanding is wrong. Also it is specified, that «victim of a crime» can be used in a narrow sense (as the person who is directly caused moral, physical or property damage) and in a broad sense (representative of a certain nation, race, religious trend, social group, concerning which a crime directly was not committed, but who cannot feel safe because of spread of these crimes).

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Published
2020-02-25
Section
Criminal Law; Criminology; Criminal Executive Law