Forbryder vs. offer
Taking its point of departure in Vagn Greve's contention (1972) that everybody is a criminal but only a certain group of people are punished and Greve's proposal that the explanation may be found in the relationship between offender and victim, this article looks into that relationship....
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Danish |
| Published: |
De Nordiske Kriminalistforeninger
1998-11-01
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| Series: | Nordisk Tidsskrift for Kriminalvidenskab |
| Online Access: | https://tidsskrift.dk/NTfK/article/view/137396 |
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| Summary: | Taking its point of departure in Vagn Greve's contention (1972) that everybody is a criminal but only a certain group of people are punished and Greve's proposal that the explanation may be found in the relationship between offender and victim, this article looks into that relationship.
The labelling of offenders as well as victims will take place according to certain stereotypes. But there cannot always be found a clear line of distinction between the two. Offenders and victims are interchangeable
(Fattah, 1994). Danish criminal court cases of violence which illustrate that fact are put into a theoretical context (Katz, 1988; Polk, 1994).
A different type of merging of the two concepts is the victim who becomes an offender - sometimes when he or she is also still a victim.
While criminology has always had difficulties in integrating into its theories the knowledge that offenders experience victimization, victimology - especially recent variants - has a tendency to ignore the fact that victims are not only "white" and offenders not only "black". "The ideal victim" {Christie, 1986) seems to encompass many more types than the little old lady on her way home from her sick sister in the middle of the day. Victims are idealised and a false dichotomization between offender and victim has (re)emerged. "The victims' case" is used politically as an excuse for "getting tough on crime" in Denmark as elsewhere. The answer to the headline question is: Yes, often. |
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| ISSN: | 2446-3051 |