Critically discuss the emergence of victims and victimology as an issue of social and academic concern.

Evaluate the meaning and controversy surrounding the concepts of victims and victimisation. Demonstrate a critical awareness of the role and significance of official statistics and the media in formulating popular images of victimisation

Critically assess criminal justice policy and practice towards victims

Case Study 2: Gender and Victimisation During her relationship with her husband, Malcolm, Sara Thornton endured repeated beatings. She sought help from numerous agencies, called the police repeatedly and her husband was eventually charged with assault. But he died before his court appearance. As he lay drunk on the sofa one night in June 1989, she stabbed him to death. The following year she was convicted of murder and given a life sentence by a judge who said she could have simply "walked out or gone upstairs". Two days later, Joseph McGrail killed his common- HYPERLINK "http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/law" law wife, as she lay drunk, by kicking her repeatedly in the stomach. He was given a two-year suspended sentence for manslaughter and walked free. The judge expressed "every sympathy" for McGrail, adding "this lady would have tried the patience of a saint". In response to the glaring discrepancy in treatment, the feminist law reform campaign Justice for Women (JfW) was born in 1991. Men commit almost 90% of domestic homicides, and the victims are their female partners - who have often been previously battered by their killers. On average, two women die every week as a result of domestic violence. For men who kill their partners, the defence of provocation is tailor-made. Provocation will reduce a charge of murder to manslaughter if the defendant can show that things were said or done to provoke them, causing them to experience a sudden loss of

control. In such cases they will often justify their actions by claiming that they "just snapped" or "saw red". Judges have been known to express sympathy for men who claim they were nagged or cheated on by female partners, but often appear to have little for women who kill after being raped by their partners or experiencing domestic violence. This tends to be because when women who are being regularly beaten by their partners kill, their dominant emotions are usually fear or despair - not exactly a sudden, explosive "loss of self-control". Case Study 2: Question To what extent are female victims of domestic violence let down by a patriarchal criminal justice system? Essential Reading Davies, P., Francis, P., Greer, C. (eds) (2007) Victims, Crime and Society. London: Sage Publications Walklate, S. (2007) Imagining the Victim of Crime. Berkshire: McGrawHill Recommended Reading Criminal Justice Performance, Justice, Victims and Witnesses Unit (2003) Speaking Up for Justice. Home Office Circular 58/03 [available from http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/sufj.pdf?view=Binary] Dignan, J. (2005) Understanding Victims and Restorative Justice. Berkshire: McGraw-Hill Hall, N. (2005) Hate Crime. Cullompton: Willan Publishing. (Chapters 1, 2 & 6) Hoyle, C. and Zedner, L. (2007) Victims, victimization and criminal justice in Maguire, M. Morgan, R. and Reiner, R. (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Criminology. (4thed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press. p461-495 Iganski, P. (2008) Hate Crime and the City. Bristol: Policy Press Walklate, S. (2003) Understanding Criminology. (2nded) Buckingham: Open University Press. (Chapters 4 and 7)

Williams, B. (2005) Victims in Hale, C. Hayward, K. Wahidin, A. &Wincup, E. (eds) Criminology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p493508. Williams, K.S. (2004) Textbook on Criminology (5th ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press (Chapter 5)