Current Issues in Victimology Research

Book excerpt: Research on crime victims' issues is a relatively new phenomenon in the criminal justice field. With the birth of victimology in the late 1940s and early 1950s, research focused on victim-offender relationships and victim culpability. It has only been in the last few decades that researchers have both studied the effects of crime upon the victim and analyzed the services provided to the crime victim. In Current Issues in Victimology Research, Moriarty and Jerin provide an understanding of the criminal act's impact upon individuals and society through recent research. The book provides the criminal justice field with a foundation for grasping the complexities of crime victimization. Current Issues in Victimology Research serves well as a textbook for a victimology course or as a companion to any traditional text book. This new edition features the works of noted scholars and practitioners in the field who summarize the existing literature on victimology and its sub-areas. Many of the chapters represent topical areas not covered in other volumes, and the original research contained in the chapters has not been published elsewhere. Moreover, each chapter represents a thorough, comprehensive, and up-to-date view of its subject matter. The eighteen chapters address current issues in victimology research including: * victim services * victim perceptions of crime severity * effectiveness of batterer intervention programs * the intimidated witness * hate crimes * adolescent victimization * elder abuse * youth internet victimization * child fatality * campus crime * female stalkers * missing persons and media responses * repeat victimization * curriculum development for victim assistance academies * truancy * corrections based restorative justice programs