Study of rater uncertainty when comparing victim typologies with homicide case data

Introduction/Objectives: Victimology is a new field at only 86 years old. Research in this field is sparce but necessary since victims are an important and vulnerable aspect in the field of Criminology. Victimology’s focus is to try and understand the relationship between the victim and the offender. By understanding this relationship can help to understand the reason why crime occurs. In the criminal justice system, victims have been seen as disposable and categorized as such. The founders of this field (Benjamin Mendelsohn, Hans von Hentig, Stephan Schafer, Marvin Wolfgang, and Menachem Amir) all created classification systems that helped to categorize victims. Each one of these typologies looks at biological, social, and psychological factors that play a role in how much or how little involvement or blame may be placed on the victim.