Victimology: A Comprehensive Approach to Forensic, Psychosocial and Legal Perspectives

The term victim refers to a person harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a crime, accident, or other event or action. Victimology focuses on the victimization in terms of psychological effects, impact on criminal justice system and new policies and it is a major aspect in the area of forensic field. Victimization can occur due to abuse, assault, maltreatment, war, terrorism, crimes and it can happen in different settings like home, school, and public. In the past, more emphasis was given to perpetrators and various theories tried explain the behavior of perpetrator and their offences. Recently, researchers started focusing different aspects of victimology and explored risk factors for becoming victim, reasons for repeated victimization, and forensic, psychological and social dimensions of victims and consequences of victimization. But there is a need for new theories and researches to have more thorough understanding of victimization.

The field of criminology dealt with crimes and various theories has developed to explain why crime occurs and more focused on perpetrators. A crime involves perpetrator and victim and not much attention has been given to the victim until recently. What happens to a victim, what are the psychological and social consequences of a harmful act to a victim, vulnerabilities to become a victim are getting serious attention now a days and started influencing the criminal justice system. The psychological and social impacts of victimization may be a short or long duration but the impacts cannot be ignored. The legal remedies and psychological healings are important aspects of victimization. While considering these factors, the book would be focusing on origin and scope of victimology, different types of victimization such as sexual abuse, domestic violence, maltreatment, cyber crimes, war and terrorism, natural calamities, victimization at school and work place, human trafficking, crime against persons, crime against property, white collar crime, elder abuse, victim with disabilities, secondary victim and re-victimization and its psychological impacts and related issues. The book would also focus on victimology and forensic factors and its influence on criminal justice system in addition to the psychological management of victimization.

Prof. Dr.RejaniThudalikunnil Gopalan is an Academician and registered Clinical Psychologist who has closer to two decades work experience in mental health area. Currently she is working as Professor and Head, Department of Clinical Psychology, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Hospital, Rajasthan, Jaipur, India. She has received many awards for her academic excellence and contribution to mental health area and research. Recently she was awarded Fellow by International Institute of Organizational Psychological Medicine, USA. Her specialized services extended to clinical consultation and therapeutic remedies for the group including adults and children with mental illness in Prison and juvenile homes along with court related disputes. Her research areas are traumas and abuses, especially sexual abuse; childhood mental health issues, school mental health, forensic, Neuro psychological and mental health issues among convicted adult and juvenile offenders.