Photography And Half-Thoughts By Mitchell Hegman

...because some of it is pretty and some of it is not.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Victimology


While watching Investigation ID on my television the other night, I heard one of the investigators use the word “victimology.”
Geez,” I said to myself, “what a cool-sounding word!  What does it mean?”
I did some investigation.
Over the years, enough people have been forced to write thesis papers in order to escape academia that a theory for over-explaining pretty much everything has emerged and then been further expounded upon.  “Victimology” theories are a prime example of that.
Yes, I did use the plural.  Several theories now exist.
Lifestyle-Exposure Theory:
Lifestyle-Exposure Theory (offered by Michael Hindenlang, Michael Gottfredson, and James Garofalo) proposes that certain sub-groups of people run a greater risk of victimization than other groups.  For example, a woman who moves into a neighborhood where an ax-murder is committed nightly may be at higher risk than, say, a woman who lives in a high-rise filled with dedicated marshmallow makers.  In another extension of this theory, hanging out with bad people in bad places is thought to increase the likelihood of victimization.
I submit this now: Who saw that before this theory came to light in 1978?
Routine Activity Theory:
Routine Activity Theory (proffered by Lawrence Cohen and Marcus Felson) suggests that crime increases where both unsupervised people and unprotected people regularly mix.
I just don’t know how I can possible add to that.  I would like to say, in conclusion, that I may have shortened this theory in gross fashion and would never have managed to escape the halls of academia with my sixteen word thesis.
Offshoot Theories:
Several offshoot theories based on the aforementioned have appeared in the time since the publication of the original theories.  I had intended to explain some offshoot theories here, but just as I started to write, 20 pounds of housecat with hairballs strolled past me.  I decided that the cat might be a good hair-brushing victim.
I went with brushing my cat.
You’re welcome.
--Mitchell Hegman

2 comments:

  1. Another theory: Feline co-habitation petting theory. This theory posits that when a man who is all by himself lives with a cat the cat is likely to constantly attract the attention of the man; thus making him an unwitting victim although the man might think the reverse -- that he is the perpetrator and the cat, the victim.

    (as I scratch my head) Hey, what's the crime in the first place?

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  2. Hmmm. I think you might try to expand that theory and publish! I think it has a certain validity!

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