Children as The Hidden Victims of Crime Report

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Introduction on Victimisation of Children:

Victimology is an area within criminology that focuses on studying victims of crime. Feminist movements had an impact on the study of victims in general, they said women and children were not ‘victims’ but ‘survivors’. The founding fathers of Victimology were Mendlesohn (1937), Von Hentig (1948), Wolfgang (1958), Schafer (1968) and later on more theorists like Rock (1983), Walklate (1985), Miers (1988), Karmen (1990), Fattah (1992), Elias (1994) developed it. Crime victim refers to any person, group or entity who has suffered injury or loss due to illegal activity. Legal definition: A person who has suffered direct, or threatened, physical, emotional or pecuniary harm as a result of the commission of a crime; or in the case of a victim being an institutional entity, any of the same harms by an individual or authorized representative of another entity (Home Office, 2002). As it can be seen, Victimology is a more recent development only emerging in the mid 20th century. "The scientific study of victimization, including the relationships between victims and offenders, the interactions between victims and the criminal justice system -- that is, the police and courts, and corrections officials -- and the connections between victims and other societal groups and institutions, such as the media, businesses, and social movements“ ( Karmen, 1990). This shows the many different aspects of Victimology that needs to be considered. For example, when looking at children as victims it is important to see how the criminal justice system, media, and society as a whole views them. This makes it easier to understand what is being done about the young people being victimized.

Child Abuse within the home:
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...cie, J., (2009), Youth & Crime, (3rd Ed.), Sage, London.
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 NSPCC (2014) How safe are our children. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/research/findings/howsafe/how-safe-2014-report_wdf101938.pdf. [Accessed 18 May 14].
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 Williams, B (1999) Working with Victims of Crime, Jessica Kingsley Publishers

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