피해자학 연구방법론

Methodological Consideration of Victimology

Victimology aims prevention or reduction of the victim of crimes as a positive and empirical, scientific research. Methodology contains the collection and analysis of exact data and objective facts, it means the rule or supplementary means for the achievement of study aims. Thus qualitative, analytical and normative studies as well as quantitative, experiential, and factual studies are very important methodologies in the studies of victimology. The latter example is victimization surveys, character of a victim and the former examples are role of a victim in a criminal act, interaction of a victim and criminal, legal status of a victim in the criminal justice process, public support and services for victims such as compensation programs in social welfare's level or restitution. In victimological inquiry there are several methodologies which are frequently used. They are analysis of official victim statistics, experimental research, participant observation, in-depth interview, group-interview, case study or life history study, sample group survey, follow-up investigation, self-report measures of a victim, the development of victim typologies. The utility of victimological research should have practical and socially useful applications for predicting, preventing, and for dealing with the effects of victim. One application stems from its attempt to ascertain the extent and nature of crime and victim. Another useful application of victimization survey research is the light that sheds on the disparity between actual and reported crime and victim rates by identifying what influences victim's decisions to report or not report. And victimization information has also stimulated restitution and victim compensation programs. Another example of the application of victimological research concerns the sentencing of criminal offenders, that is, sentencing schemes depend on assessments of relative participation and responsibility as well as characteristics of a victim and criminal. Also the victimological methodologies have an influence on the development and evaluation of public support and service programs for victims.