Understanding Victimology: Definitions and Concepts

Every time a crime is committed, two parties come into focus – the offender and the victim. For decades, criminal justice systems across the world, including India’s, concentrated almost entirely on the offender: their motive, background, trial, and punishment. The victim – the person who actually suffered – was largely treated as a witness, a supporting character in a story about someone else. Victimology emerged as a direct challenge to this imbalance. It is the scientific study that places the victim at the center of the inquiry, and understanding its foundations is essential for anyone studying criminal justice today.

What is victimology?
The origin: Benjamin Mendelsohn and the birth of a discipline
Defining the “victim” – what the term actually means
Dictionary definitions
The UN Declaration of 1985 – the authoritative legal definition
Victimology vs. criminology – understanding the distinction
Scope of victimology – what does it study?
Victimology in the Indian context
Why victimology matters

What is victimology?

Victimology is a branch of criminology that focuses on victims – who they are, what harm they suffer, why they are targeted, how the criminal justice system responds to them, and what role social institutions play in their recovery. More precisely, it is the scientific study of the causes of victimization, its consequences, and how different elements of society – from the police and courts to the media and social services – accommodate and assist victims.

The field uses the scientific method. Rather than simply assuming why certain groups are more vulnerable to crime, victimologists conduct structured research, analyse data, and build evidence-based theories. This empirical foundation is what distinguishes victimology from general advocacy for victims.

The origin: Benjamin Mendelsohn and the birth of a discipline

The term “victimology” was coined in 1947 by Benjamin Mendelsohn, a French-Israeli attorney who became interested in the relationship between criminals and their victims while conducting interviews for his legal practice. He noticed a pattern: victims and offenders often knew each other, and there existed a complex relationship between them that no one was formally studying. This observation led him to propose victimology as an independent scientific discipline.

Mendelsohn described his field as “the science of victims and victimity” – where victimity refers to the general phenomenon that characterises all categories of victims, regardless of the cause of their suffering. His vision was deliberately broad. He did not want victimology confined only to victims of crime; he envisioned it encompassing victims of natural disasters, accidents, social injustice, and abuses of power. This expansive conception remains influential in how the discipline is understood today.

Mendelsohn also created one of the first victim typologies – a classification of victims based on the degree of their contribution (if any) to the crime. His six categories ranged from the completely innocent victim, such as a child, to victims who actively provoked or participated in the offence. While these categories have since been heavily critiqued for placing undue responsibility on victims, they were foundational in making the victim a subject of serious academic study.

Defining the “victim” – what the term actually means

The word “victim” has deep linguistic roots. It derives from the Latin victima, and related words appear in Old European, Sanskrit, and Gothic languages – historically associated with sacrifice, suffering, and harm. In legal and academic contexts, however, defining a victim precisely is more complex than it seems.

Dictionary definitions

Standard dictionaries offer a starting point. Merriam-Webster defines a victim as a person who is harmed by a crime, accident, or other event. The Britannica Dictionary describes victimology as a branch of criminology that studies the relationship between an injured party and an offender, examining the causes and nature of the consequent suffering. These everyday definitions, though useful, are insufficient for legal and criminological purposes because they do not capture the full range of people who can be considered victims under contemporary frameworks.

The UN Declaration of 1985 – the authoritative legal definition

The most significant and widely accepted definition in international law comes from the United Nations Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 29 November 1985 through Resolution 40/34. This document defines “victims” in two distinct categories.

Under Part A (Victims of Crime), the Declaration states that “victims” means persons who, individually or collectively, have suffered harm – including physical or mental injury, emotional suffering, economic loss, or substantial impairment of their fundamental rights – through acts or omissions that violate criminal laws operative within Member States. Critically, a person may be considered a victim regardless of whether the perpetrator is identified, apprehended, prosecuted, or convicted. The term also extends to immediate family members or dependants of the direct victim, and even to bystanders who suffer harm while trying to help a victim.

Part B (Victims of Abuse of Power) extends the definition further. It includes persons who have suffered harm through acts or omissions that may not yet constitute violations of national criminal laws, but do violate internationally recognised norms relating to human rights. This is a significant expansion – it means that even where no domestic crime has been committed, a person can still be classified as a victim if their internationally recognised rights have been violated.

This two-part definition reflects the modern, expansive understanding of victimhood that Mendelsohn originally envisioned: victimology is not just about crime victims in the narrow penal sense, but about all human beings who suffer harm at the hands of others or through systemic failures.

Victimology vs. criminology – understanding the distinction

Victimology is closely related to criminology but is not the same discipline. Criminology focuses on offenders – why they commit crimes, how they are processed by the justice system, and how crime can be prevented. Victimology, by contrast, places greater emphasis on the victim than on the perpetrator. It asks different questions: Who is harmed? How are they harmed? What are the consequences of that harm? How does the system respond to their needs?

Some scholars, like Kirchhoff, have argued that victimology is essentially criminology viewed from the victim’s perspective. Others insist it has evolved into a fully independent discipline with its own theories, methods, and goals. What is clear is that victimology and criminology, while overlapping, address fundamentally different aspects of the crime phenomenon – and both are necessary for a complete understanding of criminal justice.

Scope of victimology – what does it study?

The scope of victimology is wide and interdisciplinary. At its core, it covers the following areas:

The victim-offender relationship: Early victimologists like Hans von Hentig and Mendelsohn were particularly interested in the dynamic between the victim and the offender. Hentig’s work introduced the concepts of victim vulnerability and victim culpability, examining how certain demographic or social characteristics made some individuals more susceptible to victimisation.

Causes of victimisation: Why are some people victimised repeatedly? Why are certain communities disproportionately targeted? Victimology seeks to answer these questions using structured research methods, including large-scale victimisation surveys.

Impact on victims: Victimologists study the psychological, physical, financial, and social consequences of crime on victims. These may include post-traumatic stress disorder, financial ruin, loss of employment, and damaged relationships – harms that persist long after the crime itself.

Interaction with the criminal justice system: How are victims treated when they report a crime? Do they receive adequate information, support, and compensation? Are their voices heard during trials? These are central victimological questions.

Social institutions and media: Beyond the formal justice system, victimology examines how media coverage affects victims, how hospitals and social services support them, and how community responses – positive or negative – shape recovery.

Human rights violations: Following the UN Declaration’s framework, victimology has expanded to include victims of torture, political persecution, corporate misconduct, and other abuses of power that may not always be prosecuted under domestic criminal law.

Victimology in the Indian context

India’s engagement with victimology as a formal discipline is relatively recent. Studies on crime victims by Indian researchers began only in the late 1970s, and for a long time, the criminal justice system treated the victim primarily as a prosecution witness rather than an independent stakeholder in the process. The accused had clearly defined rights; the victim had very few.

The gap is significant: the term “victim of a crime” lacks a specific statutory definition in Indian law, though the UN Declaration’s framework is frequently referenced by Indian courts and law reform bodies. The Indian Supreme Court has, over the years, stepped in to fill this gap through landmark judgments – most notably in Rudal Shah v. State of Bihar (1983), where compensation was awarded for illegal detention, and in Nilabati Behera v. State of Orissa (1993), where the Court affirmed that monetary compensation is an appropriate remedy for violations of fundamental rights.

The Malimath Committee Report (2003) was a turning point at the legislative level – it strongly recommended victim-centred reforms, including the right of victims to participate in criminal proceedings, access legal aid, and receive compensation. Provisions under Sections 357 and 357A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (now reflected in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita) formalize victim compensation schemes at the state level, though implementation remains inconsistent across the country.

The Indian Society of Victimology (ISV), established in Chennai, has also played a role in building the academic and policy foundations of the field in India – organising symposia, drafting a Victim Assistance Bill in 1996, and advocating for a dedicated victims’ rights legislation that India still lacks.

Why victimology matters

Victimology is not an abstract academic pursuit. It has direct, practical consequences for how criminal justice systems are designed and how they serve – or fail – the people they are meant to protect. When a rape survivor is made to recount her trauma repeatedly without psychological support, when a fraud victim cannot afford a lawyer while the accused has legal aid, or when a family receives no information about the trial of the person who harmed them – these are victimological failures that research can identify and policy can address.

Understanding victimology at its foundational level – its definitions, concepts, and scope – is the first step toward building a justice system that recognises the harm done to real people, and takes that recognition seriously.

What do you think? India’s criminal justice system has historically focused on prosecuting offenders rather than rehabilitating victims – does recognising victimology as a formal discipline change how we should measure whether justice has been served? And given that the UN Declaration defines victims to include those harmed by abuses of power, not just criminal acts, how should Indian law evolve to protect a broader class of victims?

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References

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Table of Contents

What is victimology? 🔗

The origin: Benjamin Mendelsohn and the birth of a discipline 🔗

Defining the “victim” – what the term actually means 🔗

Dictionary definitions 🔗

The UN Declaration of 1985 – the authoritative legal definition 🔗

Victimology vs. criminology – understanding the distinction 🔗

Scope of victimology – what does it study? 🔗

Victimology in the Indian context 🔗

Why victimology matters 🔗