Victim-offender Overlap
Does being involved in acts of criminality negate an individual’s status as a ‘deserving’ victim?
Traditionally, criminologists and the criminal justice system have considered offenders and victims as two distinct groups, completely different from each other. This assumption was based on the considerable body of evidence that suggests that victims and offenders are very much different from each other (Broidy et al. 2006).
Norwegian criminologist, Nils Christie (1986) attempted to present an idealised picture of the victim, a stereotype created to present the ideal-victim and its attributes. The ideal victim is considered to be separate and different from the offender. In the model presented by Christie (1986), the victim is blameless, sympathetic, and weak, whereas the offender is strong and unambiguously bad. More importantly, the victim presents the appropriate combination of sympathy, influence and power to be able to receive the victim status without risking opposition or threatening countervailing interests. In contrast, there is a substantial body of evidence that suggests that the two groups present similarities.
Multiple studies have discovered that victims and offenders present similarities in behaviours as well as demographics (Cohen et al, 1981; Lauritsen et al, 1991). For example, Fattah (1991) argued that offenders are more likely to be…
