AP/CRIM 4663 6.00

Critical Victimology

Crosslisted: AP/SOSC 4663

The course introduces students to victimology, the diverse theoretical approaches in the field, and the politics of the victim label, from a critical perspective. Topics include victim precipitation theories and victim-blaming; contemporary, critical and radical perspectives in victimology; victims’ rights movements; and existing programs and rights instruments for victims in Canada. Victimology originated in the search for victims’ inherent weaknesses and contribution to their own victimization but was expanded by critical scholars who sought to deconstruct victim-blaming, question the victim label, and attend to gender, race, class, sexuality, colonialism and environmentalism. Attesting to the influence of early victimology, victim-blaming continues to echo through the criminal justice system and popular culture. The figure of the victim (or survivor) is invoked by activists and politicians in zero-sum rhetoric advancing punitive responses from criminal law to public shaming. Questions considered in the course include: Who counts as a victim, and what are the implications of the victim label? What are the impacts of victimization, and of policies and practices that aim to help victims? How do resistance, resilience, agency, and revenge fit into understandings of victims and victimization? In a participatory seminar format, the course explores philosophical, experiential, theoretical, activist, and regulatory considerations of victims through contemporary victimological issues ranging from highly publicized topics of sexual assault to indirect forms of victimization including legacies of historical, structural, and intergenerational violence.