Experiences of victimization highlight the importance of storytelling as much as they obstruct it. Although victimology tends to focus on clearly severe and/or conventional forms of harm, this article turns to experiences that are both common and contested. Specifically, we examine how people recount and evaluate experiences of microaggressions: subtle, everyday forms of exclusion, insult, or discrimination directed at marginalized groups. To examine how people make sense of such experiences, we recorded 17 peer conversations about microaggressions and conducted follow-up interviews with the 34 participants. Using narrative analysis, we examined how and with what effects storytellers communicated their experiences of microaggression to their co-participants. Our findings demonstrate that participants used various narrative strategies to convey the feeling of being targeted, frame microaggressions as morally transgressive, and exert mastery over past experiences. Conversational partners played a key role in co-constructing evaluation and affirming moral meaning. The findings highlight the value of storytelling for articulating experiences that are hurtful yet ambiguous, suggesting ways to foster recognition and mutual understanding across social differences.
Image-based abuse and sextortion are increasingly recognised as serious forms of technology-facilitated sexual violence, yet limited empirical research has examined how victim-survivors navigate justice-seeking in high-stigma contexts. This article examines victim-survivors’ justice journeys in cases of image-based abuse and sextortion in Bangladesh, focusing on silence and disclosure, institutional responses, and evolving understandings of justice. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 18 victim-survivors and 12 stakeholders, the study adopts a victim-centred analytical approach informed by secondary victimisation, procedural justice, and access to justice frameworks. The findings show that silence and delayed disclosure often functioned as deliberate and protective strategies shaped by stigma, reputational risk, and concerns about loss of control over personal information. For those who engaged with formal or semi-formal systems, fragmented reporting pathways, repeated disclosure demands, evidentiary burdens, and limited communication frequently contributed to secondary harm and disengagement. Attrition emerged as a cumulative and reasoned response to emotional exhaustion and procedural burden rather than indifference or failure. Many victim-survivors ultimately redefined justice in experiential terms, prioritising safety and restoration of control over formal legal outcomes. The study demonstrates that legal reform alone is insufficient to ensure meaningful access to justice for victim-survivors of technology-facilitated abuse.
Children exploited in criminality occupy a precarious legal position: their victimisation is rendered invisible by the conduct through which they are exploited. Drawing on the ideal victim framework and double deviance hypothesis, this article examines why children coerced into criminal activity are encountered by authorities as offenders rather than victims, and why boys (who constitute the majority of children identified in criminal networks in Sweden) are simultaneously the most exploited and the least protected as they are rendered invisible as victims while remaining visible as offenders. Through a systematic genealogical analysis of international anti-trafficking instruments, the article traces the tension between offenderisation and victimisation in Sweden’s regulatory approach to child criminal exploitation. The analysis reveals a persistent gap between European legal obligations and Swedish domestic implementation. While the European Union Anti-Trafficking Directive explicitly recognises criminal exploitation as a trafficking purpose and mandates non-punishment for victims, Swedish legislation neither incorporates criminal exploitation as a trafficking purpose nor provides a non-punishment provision.
Victimological research has examined the construction of victimhood on the basis of the model of the ideal victim and the consequences for real victims of crime. Through a literature review and examination of cases of idealization, including a specific case study centred on a series of murders sentenced by a Spanish criminal court, this paper shows how the processes of victim idealization are a part of the evolution of social dynamics, and how certain events and the intervention of specific actors influence this evolution. More research should analyse how these processes occur in different social contexts and how they shape court decisions.
On October 7, 2023, a large-scale terrorist attack on the Nova Psytrance Festival in Israel resulted in mass casualties and widespread collective victimization. In response, Immediate Therapeutic and Support Spaces (ITSS) were rapidly established to provide an early, large-scale, and culturally attuned victim support response outside conventional clinical settings. This qualitative phenomenological study explores survivors’ experiences within these spaces, with particular attention to the role of immediacy, scale, and alignment with survivors’ social and cultural preferences. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 survivors, and thematic analysis was applied from a victim-centered perspective. The findings indicate that the immediate availability of these spaces functioned as a critical bridge between acute trauma and continuity of life, enabling survivors to engage in recovery without disruption to their identities, social ties, or cultural practices. The spaces fostered collective belonging and mutual recognition while emphasizing autonomy, self-worth, and nonjudgmental support tailored to survivors’ needs, including acceptance of psychoactive substance use. Grounded in positive victimology and the principle of continuity, the study highlights how timely, culturally responsive interventions for large groups of victims can facilitate emotional processing alongside social reintegration. The findings offer victimological insights into the design of immediate, community-based responses following extreme collective violence.
The difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic were exacerbated for those working in domestic abuse crisis and support services, many of whom received little public recognition for their efforts at the time. The present study addresses this gap by illustrating the factors informing and sustaining domestic abuse service provision during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eighteen domestic abuse service providers (DASPs) from one organisation in south-east England shared their experiences of working during the pandemic national lockdowns. The thematic analysis outlines the hidden negotiations of remote working, the psychological and pragmatic adaptations DASPs employed to maintain vital services, and the impact of dealing with risk and trauma from intimate spaces and while isolated from colleagues. Key themes include negotiating boundaries, navigating guilt, and re-evaluating success. The importance of 'compassion satisfaction' - feelings of pleasure from helping others by doing a job well - significantly helped DASPs to adopt positive attitudes during this period of uncertainty and change. DASPs demonstrated personal and professional growth through acquiring new skills, fostering innovation, and positively reframing their contributions. The findings offer evidence-based insight into factors that may mitigate risk to service delivery in future large-scale crisis situations.
The victim-offender overlap is one of the most robust findings in criminology and victimology. However, the literature on this overlap suffers from several limitations. First, its conceptualisation of the victim-offender overlap is rather narrow. Second, it lacks a theoretical framework that explains the overlap between victimisation and offending. Third, it has neglected its relevance for criminal justice responses to crime. In this paper, I argue that adopting a trauma-informed lens can help us to overcome these limitations in the context of violent crime. Such a lens is based on two premises: (1) that violent victimisation and offending may both originate in and result from trauma and (2) that criminal justice responses to violent crime will be less harmful and result in better outcomes if they account for trauma. I show that this lens can help to broaden the conceptualisation of the victim-offender overlap and to improve criminological and victimological theory and criminal justice policy and practice.
This article examines the lived experiences of 17 victims of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) through in-depth qualitative interviews. Drawing on interpretivist victimology and research on technology-facilitated sexual violence, the study explores how IBSA produces layered and intersecting harms across three domains: emotional and psychological impact, social and relational disruption, and financial consequences. It further examines how the technological environment, marked by anonymity, permanence, and borderless circulation, shapes and intensifies these harms. Victims reported intense emotional responses, ranging from fear and anxiety to shame, depression, and psychosomatic distress. Socially, many experienced isolation, stigma, and erosion of trust, particularly when abuse intersected with cultural taboos or gendered expectations. Financially, victims faced extortion, educational and occupational disruption, and the cost of seeking justice or support. The technological architecture of digital platforms facilitated recurrence, impersonation, and institutional neglect, leaving victims with a sense of prolonged vulnerability and burden. Rather than a one-time event, IBSA emerges as a temporally extended process in which harms accumulate, interact, and reshape victims’ life narratives. Institutional responses often reinforced harm through disbelief, inaction, or procedural re-traumatization. These findings underscore the need to reframe IBSA not only as a digital or interpersonal violation, but as a cumulative form of victimization that disrupts recovery and future-oriented agency. The article concludes with implications for platform governance, trauma-informed institutional design, and future research on the meaning-making dimensions of digital abuse.
This paper explores sexual predation and victimisation of young females in internally displaced person camps in Northern Nigeria. Studies on sexual aggression aggregate the causes and consequences; there remains a significant knowledge gap regarding the co-existence of ‘predators and victims’ in refugee camps in Northern Nigeria. Routine Activity Theory and the Integrated Theory of Sexual Offending provided the theoretical framework. The study was conducted in Benue and Nasarawa states, and Abuja, Nigeria, known for high number of young female refugees. Using an exploratory design and a qualitative methods approach, 6 key informant interviews were conducted with camp officials and 25 in-depth interviews were held with victims of sexual predation. The study revealed that sexual violence was regularly perpetrated by security personnel and male refugees, influenced by poor access to justice and entrenched patriarchal norms that normalise male dominance and control over women’s bodies. A weak support structure, distrust in camp management, and hunger created conditions of extreme vulnerability that silenced victims and normalised sexual violence as a survival mechanism. The study underscores the urgent need for institutional reforms to address underreporting, strengthen accountability mechanisms, and provide comprehensive support for survivors. This research offers a nuanced understanding of how sexual violence in refugee camps produces long-term security risks, as children born from predation, often neglected and marginalised, may become vulnerable to recruitment by insurgent groups in Northern Nigeria.
Community Courts (CCs) provide an alternative to the mainstream, punitive criminal justice process. In this model, legal professionals collaborate to provide rehabilitation for recidivist participants. CC programs worldwide usually use conventional metrics of recidivism and legal compliance to measure the individual and program success. However, it appears there is a need to consider the programs' impact on crime victims and their level of involvement when evaluating success in these courts. Incorporating victims into CC processes might help fulfill the goal of enhancing the community's involvement in the program. In addition, victims' involvement could benefit the participants during their rehabilitation process by developing a deeper understanding of the consequences of re-offending on society. Based on 80 in-depth interviews conducted in 2018-2023 with professionals and participants of five CCs in Israel, this study uncovers the existing mechanisms and identifies shortcomings in the current victims' integration practices. Drawing upon the insights derived from the empirical data, this article discusses a critical gap: while CCs are based on community justice principles, crime victims, central to the community, are excluded from the assessment process, undermining both rehabilitation and systemic effectiveness. In addressing these aspects, this study contributes to the ongoing discourse on victim-centered justice.
News reporting plays an important role in shaping and reinforcing community understanding of intimate partner violence, as well as assumptions about its nature. This study used a framing analysis of a sample of media reports of intimate partner homicides published on Australian online platforms across a 3-year period (1 August 2014-31 July 2017). The aim was to explore how victim-blaming narratives within media coverage varied according to the gender configuration of the offender/victim pair. The analysis showed that female offenders were often excused when killing a violent male partner, while female victims were blamed for using alcohol, drugs, or infidelity. Male offenders, however, were often excused for using alcohol or drugs, and mental health issues were cited as an excuse for both genders. Overall, this study found that the portrayal of male offenders and victims often aligns with traditional gender stereotypes. Female victims were mainly blamed by the media when they violated these stereotypes, whereas female offenders were excused when they adhered to them. The findings of this research have important implications for policy and practice including reviewing existing media guidelines, providing training and resources, and educating the public.
Since the 1980s we have witnessed the steady growth of the victims’ movement and associated victim rights that provide international benchmarks for these rights and their enactment into domestic law. While there are ongoing concerns about the implementation of these rights and equal access to justice for all (see SDG 16 indicators, for example), these victim rights emphasise individuals within a criminal justice context. This well-trodden observation in no way diminishes the importance of existing instruments for delivering justice for victims. What has changed is that victim rights are increasingly referenced to social group position. For example, the rights of women, minoritised people, faith-based groups, indigenous and displaced people, LGBTQ+ people (to name but a few) are positioned around historical and contemporary claims of unfairness, disadvantage and the privilege of others. In some instances, collective claims to victimhood and their associated claims for recognition and restitution clash, leading to anger, resentment and the danger of further harm. This article will consider whether there is a case for a new type of collective victim right in the form of remediation, what this might look like and how it might operate, alongside existing provision.
Victim-blaming continues to be a recurring feature in media portrayals of sexual assault survivors. However, research has not explored differences in portrayals of male and female sexual assault survivors. Because the presence of victim-blaming can be presented in ways that serve to reinforce or criticize the adoption of victim-blaming attitudes, it is crucial to explore and identify any gender differences in the presence of victim-blaming in fictional sexual assault survivor portrayals. This study extends existing research by qualitatively comparing portrayals of male and female survivors in the same fictional television programs to identify any differences in victim-blaming. In an ethnographic content analysis of 41 episodes of 13 Reasons Why and 20 episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU) , the study explores qualitative thematic differences in victim-blame frames of male and female survivors. The findings revealed thematic differences in the types of subthemes utilized in male and female survivor portrayals to denote victim-blame.
This article critically examines the agency of victims who do their ‘victim work’ outside of formal or official transitional justice (TJ) processes and mechanisms. Drawing on the memoirs of victims who privately engaged with non-state armed groups (NSAGs) in the aftermath of political violence, it argues that the decision to do so is driven by a sense of responsibility felt by victims. Developing this argument further, the article posits that victims are motivated to do ‘victim work’ in this way by a sense of relational responsibility to dead family and friends, a sense of self-responsibility towards themselves, and a sense of other-centric responsibility towards post-conflict society. Recognising agency as the ability to make choices and follow these through with action, the article identifies how the memoirs provide a valuable insight into how victims explain, rationalise, and justify their unorthodox decisions to engage with NSAGs. The article concludes that TJ discourse and practice must take a broader view of victim agency so that it captures ‘victim work’ that is neither public, collective nor formal.
History offers countless examples of victims whose experiences have shaped not only their own destinies but also the ethical foundations of justice. However, victims are often stereotyped as either passive or vengeful, marginalizing their potential contributions to legal systems. This article challenges such a representation by proposing a four-layer framework to understand how victims can help transform justice. The layers include (1) vulnerability after harm, as a shared human condition; (2) resilience, as the process of rebuilding the self; (3) ethical responsibility, where suffering is redirected into justice-oriented action; and (4) institutional receptivity and cooperation, meaning the legal system's openness to victims' voices. When these dimensions intersect, experiences of harm may lead to legal transformation. The argument is grounded in cases such as the activism of Gis & egrave;le Pelicot and Claudine Cordani in France, the Larry Nassar trial in the United States, and the emergence of 'apostrophe laws' that reflect victims' influence on courtroom practice. The article concludes that although contemporary victimology has expanded victims' rights and participation, it has yet to fully consider vulnerability as a constructive force. This calls for a new phase of victimology that recognizes victims as agents who, with institutional support, carry their vulnerability into the legal arena as a generative force.
