In this live, interactive Criminology session, we will be joined by Jon Garland, Professor of Criminology in the Department of Sociology at University of Surrey, who will present 'Heroic' or 'Pathetic'? An Assessment of How We Understand Victims and Victimhood.
In this live, interactive Criminology session, we will be joined by Jon Garland, Professor of Criminology in the Department of Sociology at University of Surrey, who will present ‘Heroic’ or ‘Pathetic’? An Assessment of How We Understand Victims and Victimhood.
Victims have become a significant aspect of social and political discourse. News media outlets often lead with stories of the plight of victims, with tragic events like the murders of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 and of Sarah Everard in 2021 sending shockwaves through society.
What, though, do we mean by the term ‘victim’ and how do we understand what a victim is? Why are some people readily given the status of ‘victim’ by the public and media while others struggle to gain similar sympathy? And why do some victims resent being labelled as such?
This talk will assess the factors behind how we understand what a ‘victim’ is and why it is that, despite a significant rise in the number of services available to support victims in recent years, victims themselves often feel like the forgotten players in the criminal justice process.