welcome to this tutor to you sociology topic video looking at patterns of victimization focusing on positivist victimology victimology is the term given to the study of victims of crime and there are two main forms of victimology that sociologists are concerned with positivist victimology a more conservative view of victims that examines a range of factors that lead to an individual becoming a victim of crime and critical victimology aligned with the ideas of critical criminology and examining the structural factors that make individuals vulnerable to crime in this video we're going to focus on the approach of positivist victimology maya's identified three features of positivist victimology firstly positivist victimology identifies factors linked to the individual and make them susceptible to being a victim of crime in other words their personal characteristics secondly positivist victimology focuses on the relationships between offenders and their victims particularly in violent and sexual crimes with an emphasis on the cause of their altercations finally positivist victimology also focuses on examining ways in which the victim may have contributed to becoming a victim themselves looking at behaviors such as their appearance their lifestyle and their behaviors in the lead-up to the crime hindelangel used a positivist victimology approach in assessing the individual and environmental factors that led to the person becoming a victim of crime they identified five factors that made individuals more susceptible to crime including age gender marital status family income and their ethnic background they also suggested that those in public spaces of an evening were more likely to be victims of crime however critics of hindelang at al have accused them of relying upon stereotypes in their construction of victims rather than examining what motivates criminals to attack these people in the first place in a further piece of contentious research wolfgang found that in 26 of murders in philadelphia over four year period the victim had instigated the altercation that led to their murder while amir examined police reports of sexual assault and found that one in five rapes were victim precipitated however in both of these cases it's important to consider how social attitudes have changed and that the findings of both wolfgang and amir are based upon the subjective interpretations of those officers that reported them and would be a reflection of their attitudes at that time rather than from the perspective of the victim a prominent feature of positivist victimology is the extent to which the victim is partially blamed for behaving in a way that would lead to them becoming a victim this can often be seen immediate reports of victims of serious violent crimes with an implicit bias against the victim based upon an aspect of their behavior the use of drugs alcohol testimonies of former partners and their sexual preferences are often reported in a manner that lays some of the blame for the crime at the fault of the victim throughout the 1980s there were many high-profile cases where judges in the uk passed comments on the nature of women's behaviors and how they were dressed surprising that these behaviors had meant that the criminal was tempted into crime and this is echoed by von hunting's duet theory which suggested that criminals are tempted by the behavior of the victim of course these theories have their critics the most common criticism of positivist victimology is that it is a victim-blaming approach and implies that certain acceptable standards of moral behavior have been breached by the victim causing them to be attacked this has been criticized by feminists among others as it suggests that the victim rather than the criminal is on trial for their behavior it ignores the role of the criminal and their background also ignoring that the criminal has broken the law and finds fault in the behaviour of victims it can also be argued that the positivist victimology approach is based upon subjective judgments that are presented as facts which as we are aware is a danger approaching issues such as being a victim of crime in a quantitative manner because it ignores the subjective interpretations of those that have been wronged that concludes this tutor to you sociology topic video on patterns of victimization thanks for watching