TY - JOUR TI - Victimology: rights, changes, and the need for continued change DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3V69H10 PY - 2014 AB - Each year millions of people are victimized in this country. Victimization occurs in many ways. The most serious type of victimization is violent victimization. Violent crimes against victims can take place as murder, manslaughter, assault, sexual assault, sexual abuse, domestic violence, rape, kidnapping, robbery, and even slavery, terrorism, and/or genocide. Throughout American history many changes have been made to laws, constitutions, statutes, rules and regulations, and orders to help and protect victims and to hold victimizers responsible for their crimes. Victims’ rights have come a long way, and have provided victims of violent crimes a voice and opportunity to receive help, closure, and justice. The study of victims is a fairly new field, and victimology, helps give a better understanding of victims and how the definition of a victim has changed throughout history to include more people and crimes against them. Programs and organizations have even been instituted to study victims, victimization, and victimology, report changes and statistics in incident and prevalence of crimes against victims, aid to raise funds for victims, to help victims recover, to help stop violent crimes, to help victims move forward from whatever violent crime they have experienced, and advocate for changes to assist victims more and to penalize victimizers to a higher extent of the law. The modern understanding of victim has drastically changed from 300 years ago and has even changed from 30 years ago. Even in modern society we still question if a victim is in fact a victim at all due to his/her own involvement in the victimization that took place against them. One pivotal and critical question remains, how much of a victim the victim actually is. In the case of victimology it is also predicted which kind of people are more likely to be victimized; it is predicted what kind of people are most vulnerable to violent crimes. The changes in victimology and victims’ rights throughout history, and how those changes affect us today, as well as changes that are still needed in regards to victimology and victims’ rights will be further discussed throughout this paper. KW - Liberal Studies KW - Victims of crimes--United States KW - Victims of crimes--Legal status, laws, etc. LA - eng ER -