Victimization and Social Status

Social status is a construct of society, a hierarchy that we have formed as our way to
better categorize who does or does not belong. Social inequality isnt necessarily a cause of
crime but society has caused a permissive culture (Jan 14, 2014). Many different things can be
used to decide ones social status, gender, race, economic status. Socioeconomic status generally
outplays the rest of these indicators when it comes to social status. This is most likely because
gender and race usually have a large impact on ones economic status. Gender and race are our
ascribed status, the status we are born with which greatly influences our achieved status, or what
we make of ourselves. Although our ascribed status has great impact on our achieved status it is
ultimately our achieved status that decides our social status, this makes economic status the most
important indicator of social hierarchy. A persons social status is a good predictor of whether an
individual will be a victim of crime at some point in their lives.

Social Status Effect on Views of Victimization

The victimization of an individual is often treated differently depending on the social
status of the victim. This depends hugely on the social concept of the ideal victim (Jan 23,
2014). Victims of low socioeconomic status dont often fall into our parameters of ideal victim,
an issue we have when dealing with the realities of victimization is that we tend to see victims as
contributing to their own victimization. (Jan 14, 2014) Sometimes we see victims as contributing
to their own victimization by occupying the wrong sort of areas. The areas of low income
housing most often have higher crime rates and we look on unsurprised when someone is
victimized in those areas. We often blame victims for exposing themselves to risky situations and

potential offenders when the reality of the situation is that these risky situations are the areas
that marginalized victims often live and work.
Victims often view their victimization in different ways, some feel responsible, they
contribute to their own victim blaming, some feel that they share the responsibility for their
victimization with others and some view their victimization as something that has just happened
to them (Walklate, 2012). The way an individual views their own victimization decides on many
factors a huge contributor being the way a victim is viewed by society. Their feelings of
responsibility are directly linked to societys view of their responsibility. Generally the closer
they fit the model of the ideal victim the less responsibility is placed on the victim for what has
been done to them.
The way victims of crime are treated by not simply just society but the criminal justice
system is in a way a form of secondary victimization (Wemmers & Cyr, 2006). We enhance and
contribute to a victims suffering by our often insensitive reactions to victims, implying or
outright asking if they were a contributor to their victimization. Victim services has come a long
way in recent years but victim blaming continues to be an issue in society and the criminal
justice system.

Marginalized Victims
Criminology at its beginnings created legal systems that criminalized the working class.
These were unequal systems in the favour of the rich, these legal systems were used in the
interest of protecting private property and generally ignored the plight of the working class (Jan
16, 2014). The middle to upper class of society allow the blatant victimization of the lower class
because we have created a us versus them sort of mentality, where lower class and delinquent

all mean the same thing and pose a direct threat to our safety simply by occupying the same
spaces as we do.
Women were often marginalized when it came to criminology and victimology. Before
the 80s and the rise of the feminist movement crime was considered to be a male problem, men
committing crimes against one another (Jan 21, 2014). Law has always been concerned with the
party with the most power. Men long held the position of power so we were blind to the issues
women victims and criminals alike. The recent pervasiveness of our awareness of female victims
can be attributed to the politics of pity. Womens ability to garner empathy from media now that
gender equality has made huge steps forward in the western culture (Feb 11,2014).
The Aboriginal community in Canada in particular is overrepresented in our incarcerated
population and also as victims. Aboriginal people on average are more likely to live in crowded
conditions, less likely to have finished high school, more likely to live in a home that needs
repairs (Feb 27, 2014.) All of these factors would generally place them in a position of low social
status and therefore over emphasised as the perpetrators of crime and their victimization is
played off as the dangerous situations victims have placed themselves with people likely to
commit crimes.
The homeless community along with all other marginalized communities lack the
protection and power to change the situation that they are in. Media portrayals regarding the
problem of homelessness are primarily about what the upper class is doing to help the homeless.
Rarely if ever do we address the rampant victimization that plagues the homeless community
because of their disadvantaged positions. There is a direct lack of recognition for homeless
victims and even bylaws that are used specifically to discriminate against the homeless (Mar 4,

2014). Homeless people find themselves in a position to be victimized simply because they dont
have the security of home, a safe place.

Victim Support
Victims previously had a huge stake in retribution against their perpetrator. The victim
and their relatives were in charge of retribution but the conflict between families became too
high of a risk so the law began to restrict the role of the victim (McShane & Williams, 1992). At
the time victims were only those with enough money and social clout to create a commotion in
regards to their victimization. Social status plays a large part in victims ability to garner
empathy for their cause. (Jan 30, 2014) A person of higher social status has the means to make
their victimization seen to the public and therefore gather pity for their cause.
We now have a system, a victims industry that mass identifies and helps many victims
(Best, 1997). The problem with this system is that it caters to the higher social class. Services
like counselling, and legal aid are available to all but focus primarily on those that can keep the
industry alive. Those that garner public support, those that can financially aid the victims
industry. Victims deemed as newsworthy are considered to better contribute to everyones
purposes in the industry (Greer, 2007). The victim is better able to get help for themselves but
they are also better able to raise awareness to the plight of similar victims and also to receive and
highlight the aid of the victims industry.

Conclusion
The stratification of social class is a concept that predates modern culture. We have
always been preoccupied in separating groups of people into identifiable collections that we can
make generalizations regarding. These generalizations vary from political views, intelligence

levels, to activity level, we justify these levels by claiming that it makes it easier for know what
can be expected of a group. We have become more and more aware of the dangers of gender and
racial stereotyping but social class stereotyping does very much the same thing, often also taking
into account race and gender as well.
The social class of a victim has direct and indirect effects on our view of the victim.
Victims of a lower social class often find themselves in places that upper classes would consider
dangerous but are simply the reality of living in a disadvantaged area. We are more likely to
blame victims of lower social status because they often differentiate from our ideal victim model
which has very narrow pre-sets for what a proper victim looks like. Victim support and victim
empathy is proportionately available to those who have the ability to garner public empathy for
their cause. We are a society that often takes what we are shown at face value, what we are
shown is what news broadcasters and the like believe we want to see, what we can relate to and
the reality is that most people with a television sitting in their comfortable homes can better
relate to a victim or similar social status. Because of this marginalized victims find themselves
with a lack of support for their cause which is a second victimization that we have inflicted upon
them.
Social class is unlikely to have an effect on the initial victimization. Housewives and
prostitutes get raped, businessmen and homeless men get mugged and often experience the
victimization with surprising similarity. The difference in their victimization is the after effects,
whether they are accused of aiding in their victimization, whether they have the availability of
public empathy for their experience and whether they have available to them victims support and
help needed to move past such an experience. A persons position in society has an enormous and
significant effect on their experience of victimization.

Bibliography
Best, J. (1997). Victimization and the victim industry. Society, 34(4), 9-17.
Greer, C. (2007). News media, victims and crime. Victims, crime and society, 20-49.
McShane, M. D., & Williams, F. P. (1992). Radical victimology: A critique of the concept of
victim in traditional victimology. Crime & Delinquency, 38(2), 258-271.
Walklate, S. (2012). Who is the victim of crime? Paying homage to the work of Richard Quinney.
Crime, Media, Culture, 8(2), 173-184.
Wemmers, J. A., & Cyr, K. (2006). What fairness means to crime victims: A social psychological
perspective on victim-offender mediation. Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice, 2(2), 102-128.