This document discusses victimology and survivor studies in higher education. It provides background on victimology as the study of victimization, victims, and societal responses. It notes barriers to developing empathy for victims, such as desensitization from constant media exposure or viewing victims as responsible. The status of adult education and victim advocacy as social movements is examined. Current victim services in Canada are outlined. The document argues for increased academic study of victimology and notes challenges, such as considering diverse perspectives and ensuring accessibility. It proposes critical action research to identify stakeholder priorities to inform the development of victimology education in Canada.

1. Victimology and Survivor
Studies
Increasing Access to Victimology and Survivor Studies in Higher Education
Heather Fox Griffith

2. What is victimology?
 Victimology is the study of victimization, victims of crimes, victims of
non-criminal victimizations including human rights violations, and the
societal relationships and responses to victimization (Landau, 2006).
 The study of the impact of victimization (Hanson, Sawyer, Begle,
Hubel, 2010).
 Victimology, typically considered a subset of criminology, places
victims and survivors at the centre of interest (O'Connell, 2008).
Heather B. F. Griffith

3. Social Justice and Barriers to Empathy and
Compassion
 The media provides us with exposure to social justice concerns and has become
increasingly graphic and prolific with shocking scenes of social justice violations,
images that reflect cruelty and suffering, and commentary that describes atrocities.
 The media acts as a witness to suffering and by exposure allows the viewer to also
become a witness. Because we are the passive viewers, there is little cognitive effort
required to react with an empathic sense of the suffering of others. It is constructed
for us by journalists and photographers.
 The constant barrage of horror may do little to evoke the hoped for compassionate
response. The steady stream of stories that describe human (or animal) suffering
may ultimately serve to desensitize the viewer in an effort to essentially turn away
from it (Hoijer, 2004).
Heather B. F. Griffith

4. Barriers to compassion
Another barrier to feeling empathy is that emotion can interfere with compassion
when the viewer becomes conflicted over the cause of the suffering, and one feels a
need to ascribe blame or responsibility that includes the victim as participant in the
creation of their own condition.
Polarized political positions portrayed by media will inevitably project the position of
right and wrong and moral ideals of the presenters (claims makers). The perception of
the social status of the victim will influence the transition from empathy to
compassion. Hoijer (2004) discusses the concept of the ideal victim and suggests our
cultural views make some crime victims ‘better’, or more deserving of compassion,
than others (p. 4).
“We conceptualize violence differently depending on social, cultural and historical
circumstances. Earlier in our Western culture, and still in some cultures, physically
punishing a child or beating one’s wife was not considered a violent act” (Hoijer, 2004, p.
4).
Heather B. F. Griffith

5. Perspectives on victimization: Who are the Victims? (Fox, 2015)
Heather B. F. Griffith

6. Perspectives on victimization: An unsympathetic societal view of victims (Eagles, 1994)
Heather B. F. Griffith

7. Adult education, lifelong learning and victimology/survivor
studies
According to Nesbit in Building on Critical Traditions there are 3 distinct features to
adult education in Canada today:
1) The status of adult education as a social movement
2) The involvement of university scholars
3) The debate between ‘adult education’ and ‘lifelong learning’ (Nesbit, 2013, p. 4,5)
The intersection of all 3 features are important to the future development of
victimology and survivor studies.
Both face similar challenges.
Heather B. F. Griffith

8. Adult education and lifelong learning
Victims services training and victimology
education
 Different traditions, philosophies and purposes
 Lifelong learning focuses more on the individual, adult education is focused on
social movements and groups.
 Lifelong learning does not necessarily involve higher learning and may be more
interested in training, non-formal and informal learning. Most learning in Canada is
focused on training of service providers. There are currently no degree programs in
victimology in Canada.
 An integration of academic learning and praxis is possible.
 Adult education involves scholars and in victimology education, demands an
understanding of theoretical, ontological (worldview) assumptions, and situated
knowledges and epistemologies.
Heather B. F. Griffith

9. Civil Rights and Social Justice
 The Antigonish Movement and co-operative
based community development through adult
education - Nova Scotia, Canada
 Highlander Research and Education Center,
(Highlander Folk School)a social justice
leadership training school that trained Rosa
Parks (resisted bus segregation)and civil rights
leader Martin Luther King - US
 Neighborhood Return and Housing
Reconstruction Recovery Plan - Haiti
 Nirantar, enabling empowering education,
especially for girls and women from
marginalised communities - India
 The School of Fish - Britain
Heather B. F. Griffith
The status of adult education as a social movement

10. The Status of victimology and the Victims’ Rights Movement
 Victim’s Rights Movement in Canada began in the early 1980s. Many victims became fierce
advocates for victim’s rights.
 Feminism and the Women’s Movement - the first shelter for abused women in Canada open
its doors in Toronto in 1973, and the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre opened a year later (Victims
of Violence and the Canadian Centre for Missing Children, 2014). Some feminists reject the
term victim for a variety of reasons and introduced the notion of survivorship.
 Civil Rights and Victim’s Movement in the U.S. – had a significant influence on the Canadian
victims’ rights movement. “The model of service delivery used by Parents of Murdered
Children would also be adopted by Canadian advocates as they went on to form similar
organizations as part of the Canadian victims’ movement” (Waller et al. 2014, p. 6)
 Victims’ Advocacy Groups - The eventual rise in victim advocacy groups led to what Landau
describes as the “emergence of a dynamic field within the academic world” (2006, p. 7).
Heather B. F. Griffith

11. Victims’ Services
Canadian Victims Bill of Rights
 POLICE-BASED SERVICES
 COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES
 SYSTEM-BASED SERVICES
 COURT-BASED SERVICES
 NON-GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
 COMPENSATION/FINANCIAL
ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS
 PROVINCIAL VICTIM SERVICES
 GRASSROOTS AND NON-
GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS
More than 900 providers across Canada
(Munch, 2013)with a significant need for
training and education of those who will be
involved in supporting and responding to
victims is enormous, yet few opportunities
exist.
Munch, 2013
Heather B. F. Griffith

12. Scholarly Contributions
 The academic study of victimology, credited to Benjamin Mendelsohn in the early
1940’s, was not concerned with victim needs so much as it was concerned with the
relationship between victims and offenders and questions of shared responsibility
(Algonquin College, 2013).
 Most traditional approaches to victimology claim it is a scientific approach to
research and study that contributes to a greater understanding of victims and
victimization, specific groups of victims, victimization risk assessment, social cultural
victimization, lifestyle factors and the phenomena of recurrence of victimization and
secondary victimization (Quinney, 1972).
 The value of such research is often defined by how well it lends itself to establishing
predictive value and to be useful in crime prevention as well as improvement in
victim services.
Heather B. F. Griffith

13. World society of victimology
 Call for the development of programs in victimology by institutions of higher learning
World Society of Victimology – Strategic Plan 2015
 convince law schools and others involved in the training of criminal justice professionals to
include courses on Victimology (sic), victim rights and issues, and convince those who
certify qualifications, such as bar associations, law enforcement and judicial bodies to
require this knowledge
 encourage university courses and degree programs on Victimology (sic), including victim
assistance, victim rights, crisis response, restorative justice and victimisation (sic) prevention
 develop standards for curricula and disseminate training materials (World Society of
Victimology, 2015)
Heather B. F. Griffith

14. A Brief history of victimology: Theory, worldview and
concepts in situated knowledges
Theory Ontological Position Concepts in Situated Knowledges
Conventional
Victimology (Positivist)
Early positivist victimology
identifies causal responsibility in
victims for their own victimization,
or makes them more susceptible to
victimization.
These theories they have been
critiqued as forms of blaming the
victim.
CRIMINAL VICTIMIZATION: victimization is the result of the violation of a criminal
offense as defined by the criminal code. This form of victimization is encoded in law. A
category that encompasses many human behaviours or "crimes", such as: violent crime,
property crime, juvenile offences, sexual offences, organized crime, white-collar and
corporate crime, and political crimes such as corruption and violations of international
legislation or crimes against humanity. Focused on law and order as social control,
punitive notions of justice. Dualistic paradigm anchored in concepts of victims and
offenders.
Heather B. F. Griffith

15. Interpretivist
Victimology
Recognizes that victimizations are
experienced differently by
individuals. Interested in justice
that recognizes victim experiences.
Likely to be interested in
restorative justice practices.
AUTO-VICTIMIZATION: destructive behaviours and harms that are self-directed, such
as the prostitute who is raped, the victim of police shooting during the commission of
a crime, the drug addict who dies of an overdose.
Likely to be interested in civil and restorative remedies.
MAY ALSO BE EVIDENT IN OTHER CONCEPTS OF VICTIMIZATION, ESPECIALLY
STRUCTURAL VICTIMIZATION.
Theory Ontological Position Concepts in Situated Knowledges
Heather B. F. Griffith

16. Critical Victimology
Recognizes the role of power
inequalities in creating
victimization. Introduces radical,
feminist and other discourses that
emphasize the oppressive nature
of unjust social systems that allow
privileged cultural and political
influences to shape how laws are
created to establish what forms of
victimization are prioritized and
recognized as legitimate within
society.
STRUCTURAL VICTIMIZATION: relates to harm caused through social and power
structures in society. Minority groups such as racial, ethnic, religious or sexual
minorities, the poor, individuals with physical or cognitive disabilities, women
oppressed through patriarchal systems are all examples of group who may be
victimized through systems and social structures.
INDUSTRIAL/TECHNOLOGICAL VICTIMIZATION: occurs when modern technology
causes human harm such as industrial pollution, insufficiently tested products such as
drugs, or genetically modified products.
NON-CRIMINAL VICTIMIZATION: relates to social harms that are not covered within
the other categories and that are not prohibited by law and exist without official means
of recourse.
Heather B. F. Griffith

17. Adult education, lifelong learning and higher learning in
victimology and survivor studies.
 It is important to recognize the intersection between adult education and a history
of interest and involvement in social justice and social development. Raymond
Williams (Williams, 1983) suggested that at times of change people turned to
learning in order to understand what was going on, to adapt to it, and most
importantly to shape change.
 It is work that can secure change at the level of individuals and
communities(Tuckett, 2015).
 The traditional involvement in adult education incentives in fields of study that
have emerged from grassroots, community-based concerns for social justice have
produced important resources that my help provide direction in the development
of victimology education.
Heather B. F. Griffith

18. Victimology and Survivor Studies in Canada
 A review of institutional websites and documents reveals that there are currently no
degree programs that lead to a focus or area of concentration in the academic
study of victimology in Canada.
 While there are programs in criminology and justice studies available they maintain
a concentration on the criminal and criminal justice processes, whereas the study of
victimology maintains a concentration on the victim.
 Some institutions offer single undergraduate courses in victimology.
 Non-formal training and community college programs.
Heather B. F. Griffith

19. Canadian textbooks
Victimology: Canadians in Context
by Hannah Scott Rights for Victims of Crime:
Rebalancing Justice by Irvin Waller
Challenging Notions: Critical
Victimology in Canada by Tammy
C. Landau

20. Canadian Victims of Crime: Critical
Insights by J. Scott Kenney
An Exporation of the Victims’ Movement in
Canada by Victims of Violence and the
Canadian Centre for Missing Children
Heather B. F. Griffith

21. Critical traditions in adult education and
victimology/survivor studies.
Adult education:
 A set of unyielding social purposes, informed by passion and outrage and rooted in
a concern for the less privileged (Nesbit, 2013)
 Challenges social orthodoxies (Nesbit, 2013).
 Contesting what counts as knowledge (Welton, 2013)
 A systematic and sustained philosophical and critical analysis that develops the
abilities to connect immediate, individual experiences with their underlying
structures (Nesbit, 2006, pl 17).
 A keen attention to the specific sites, locations, and practices, where such purposes
are made real in the lives of Canadians (Nesbit, 2006, p. 17).
Heather B. F. Griffith

22. Cont’d.
Critical Victimology and survivor studies
 Interested in good social citizenship that acknowledges and challenges structural
inequalities in the advancement of victims needs and rights (Mawby & Walkate, 2002)..
 Develops a critical understanding of how legal processes and assumptions can produce
harm and secondary victimizations (Tamarit, 2010) and fail to protect victims (Mawby &
Walkate, 2002).
 Concerned with access to courses and programs that help to bridge differing
perspectives and determine priorities in victimology education, taking into account
location and regional needs, alongside socio/cultural factors such as gender, age,
economic and cultural status or health conditions (Oxman-Martinez, 2005).
 Interested in principles of education that places previous learning and knowledge as the
starting point of education for adult learners (Conrad, 2013).
Heather B. F. Griffith

23. What is at Stake?
 The call for development of academic courses is anchored in the recognition that
victims comprise one third of the criminal justice paradigm, along with offenders and
justice processes.
 There is a risk of harm to victims when decisions and policies are made, and supports
are provided by responders and workers who do not have a comprehensive
understanding of victim needs and experiences. Their actions may, in fact, produce a
risk of doing more harm and creating secondary victimizations.
 Equally, there is a risk to developing courses and programs that fail to consider the
existing knowledge and experiences of stakeholders in justice processes and societal
responses, and the experiences and knowledge of victims themselves.
 Commodification of education may conflict with critical traditions in education, placing
financial interests ahead of social justice and a concern for the less privileged.
Heather B. F. Griffith

24. The Challenges in education
 Worldviews and social justice perspectives
 Discerning perspectives and bias in victimology knowledge
 Formal and non-formal learning, training and education
 Multicultural and regional needs and perspectives
 Problems of access from across Canada
 The role of distance and blended learning in victimology pedagogy
 Undergraduate and graduate Studies
 Certificate or degree
 Theory and praxis
 Informed policy development
 Justice systems: Criminal justice, restorative justice and therapeutic jurisprudence, Indigenous justice circles,
truth and reconciliation processes
 Areas of special Interest: gendered violence, sexualized violence, childhood victimization, hate crimes, human
trafficking, violent crimes, property crimes, lived experience and recovery/resilience, victim narratives and
victim impact statements, victimization and the media, social response to victimization.
Heather B. F. Griffith

25. Critical action research to develop victimology and survivor
studies - Proposed research
 The research asks, What are stakeholder priorities in the development, design and
delivery of victimology education? What challenges and possibilities are relevant to
the development of Canadian victimology and survivor studies courses/programs
in higher learning?
 Research methods based on a critical action research model following principles of
collaboration and a commitment to conducting a “broad social analysis” (Kemmis,
2014, p. 12). This methodology is grounded in principles that acknowledge multiple
participant perspectives and place the researcher in a facilitator role.
 This methodology is grounded in principles of adult education and lifelong
learning theory.
 Research methods include participant interviews and stakeholder meetings. A
minimum of 25 participants, regionally represented, will be interviewed.
Stakeholders will represent interveners and responders, advocates, justice
processes, and scholars from multiple disciplines.
Heather B. F. Griffith

26. Who will benefit?
 After becoming familiar with the data, a holistic analysis will be conducted so that
overarching, emergent themes and priorities are identified, recognized and named
(Savin-Baden, 2013).
 The study will contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the area of
victimology. The beneficiaries of this knowledge are the victims, their families and
communities, and the many people who respond to their rights and needs.
Heather B. F. Griffith

27. References and Suggested Readings
Algonquin College. (2013). Victimology: Theoretical perspectives - Lesson notes. Victimology: Theoretical perspectives - Lesson
Notes. Ottawa: Algonquin College
Bear, Dan, (2014) Higher Education and ROI: The Employment-Education Debate, In What Your Adult Students Want. Toronto:
Destiny Solutions
Brown, T. (2010). Teaching adult education history in a time of uncertainty and hope. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 50(3),
497-517. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/855632684?accountid=13480
Campbell, R. W. (2001). Preventing the “second rape": Rape survivors' experiences with community service providers. Journal of
Interpersonal Violence, 12/2001, 16(12), 1239-1259.
Conrad, Diane (2013) Recognizing prior learning (RPL) within adult education: Issues and practice in Canadian nniversities. In
Nesbit, T. (2013). Building on critical traditions: Adult education and learning in Canada. Toronto: Thompson Pub.
Daniels, Shirley, (2014) Five Biggest Misconceptions about Adult Students What Your Adult Students Want. Toronto: Destiny
Solutions.
Giroux, Henry, (2012). Surviving neoliberalism. Philosophers for change blog, October 23, 2012. Retrieved from
http://philosophersforchange.org/2012/10/23/surviving-neoliberalism/
Hanson, R. F., Sawyer, G. K., Begle, A. M., & Hubel, G. S. (2010). The Impact of crime victimization on quality of life. Journal of
Traumatic Stress, 23(2), 189–197. http://doi.org/10.1002/jts.20508
Fox Griffith, H. (2015). Who are the victims? Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-
lLd4uA5s&feature=youtube_gdata
Landau, T. (2006). Challenging notions: Critical victimology in Canada. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press Inc.
Maclean, S., Carter, L., (2013) University Continuing Learning in Adult Education - History and Key Trends, In Nesbit, T. (2013).
Building on critical traditions: Adult education and learning in Canada. Toronto: Thompson Pub.
Heather B. F. Griffith

28. Cont’d.
Mawby, R., Walkate, S. (2002) Critical victimology international perspectives. Thousand Oaks: SajePub
Munch, C. (2013). Victim services in Canada, 2009/2010. Statistics Canada. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-
x/2012001/article/11626-eng.pdf
Nesbit, T. (2013). Building on critical traditions: Adult education and learning in Canada. Toronto: Thompson Pub.
O'Connell, M. (2008). Victimology - A Social science in waiting? International review of victimology. 2008, Vol. IS , 91-104.
Oxman-Martinez, J. L. (2005). Victims of trafficking in persons: Perspectives from the Canadian community sector. Ottawa:
Research and Statistics Division, Department of Justice Canada.
Quinney, R. (1972). Who is the Victim? Criminology Volume 10, Issue 3, 314-323.
Tamarit, J. V. (2010). Secondary victimization and victim assistance. European journal of crime, criminal law & criminal
justice, 18(3), 281-298. doi:10.1163/157181710X12767720266049.
The Eagles Band (1994) Get over it. Youtube video with lyrics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H-Y7MAASkg
The World Society of Victimology. (2000, August). Xth International Symposium on Victimology. Retrieved from The World
Society of Victimology: http://www.worldsocietyofvictimology.org/publications/wsv41.pdf
Tuckett, A. (2015). Adult Education, Social Transformation and the Pursuit of Social Justice. European Journal of Education,
50: 245–249. doi: 10.1111/ejed.12135
Waller, I. et al. (2014). An Exploration of the victims’ movement in Canada. Victims of Violence and the Canadian Centre for
Missing Children.
Welton, Michael (2013) Unearthing Canada’s hidden past: A Short history of adult education. Toronto: Thompson Pub.