Victimology

In an event when incidents occurs affecting people and there arise the need to investigate the people involved, we call this process victimology. It involves looking keenly on the victims to find out what happened to them. One usually considers the aspects of victims’ way of life, health status, their looks as well as their background. The close analysis of these factors helps the investigators know under what circumstances the crimes were committed and possibly the culprits of the crime. (Karmen 2006)


Victimology is an important activity for it helps one get a hint of what happened or what led to the said crime. Psychologically getting to view the person’s previous activities and lifestyle may lead the investigator understanding the need to believe that the said person is a suspect in the alleged crimes.


For an investigator to be able to link an person to any acts he should first collect information concerning the person physical appearance, whether married or not, his occupation, academic matters, medical reports and reports on criminal history, how the person behaved at the time close the happenings, the daily activities records of the person, whether he uses drugs, the persons close friends or enemies, the background of his family. The connection of these factors gives an information that helps psychologist to get a database about victims they intent to know more about. This profiling then helps them to identify suspects. It usually starts by understanding the mind of the person. This requires not just everyone but a psychologist who will know how to extract information from the necessary sources.


Victimology therefore plays a great role in the development of psychological profiles because it is through it that one gets to know more about what the psychologist may require to know in order to make their conclusions concerning certain activities.


Karmen, A. (2006) Crime victims: An introduction to victimology; 6th ed., Belmont: Wadsworth