Editing Victimology (section)

== Victim proneness ==

=== Environmental theory ===
The environmental theory posits that the location and context of the crime bring the victim of the crime and its perpetrator together.<ref>Harrison on the ''environmental theory'', at [http://www.cameron.edu/~harrison/259,4 Environmental Theory]{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Research published between 2010 and 2025 gives some credence to this theory.

Studies in the early 2010s showed that crimes are negatively correlated to trees in urban environments; more trees in an area are congruent with lower victimization rates or violent crime rates.<ref name="More Trees">{{cite web |url=http://www.treehugger.com/health/more-trees-means-less-crime-baltimore-study-shows.html|title=More Trees (Equals) Less Crime in Baltimore, Study Shows|last=Davies|first=Alex|date=June 19, 2012|access-date=June 19, 2012}}</ref><ref name="Big Trees">{{cite web|url=http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/big-trees-may-make-communities-safer-says-study.html|title=Big Trees May Make Communities Safer, Says Study|last=Messenger|first=Stephen|date=November 1, 2010|access-date=June 19, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120725070103/http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/big-trees-may-make-communities-safer-says-study.html|archive-date=July 25, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Some Trees">{{cite web |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101101171240.htm|title=Some City Trees May Discourage 'Shady' Behavior; Study Explores Relationship Between Urban Trees and Crime|website=ScienceDaily|date=November 1, 2010|access-date=June 19, 2012}}</ref><ref name="Portland">{{cite journal | last1 = Donovan | first1 = G. H. | last2 = Prestemon | first2 = J. P. | year = 2010 | title = 'The Effect of Trees on Crime in Portland, Oregon. | url = https://semanticscholar.org/paper/abe37b479ca4a5d41d66c502d31da71c8467ccb9| journal = Environment and Behavior | volume = 44| pages = 3–30| doi = 10.1177/0013916510383238 | s2cid = 16392203 }}</ref><ref name="Baltimore">{{cite journal | last1 = Troya | first1 = Austin | last2 = Groveb | first2 = J. Morgan | last3 = O'Neil-Dunne | first3 = Jarlath | year = 2012| title = 'The relationship between tree canopy and crime rates across an urban–rural gradient in the greater Baltimore region. | journal = Landscape and Urban Planning | volume = 106 | issue = 3| pages = 262–270 | doi = 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2012.03.010 | bibcode = 2012LUrbP.106..262T }}</ref>  This relationship was established by studies in 2010 in [[Portland, Oregon]] and in 2012 in [[Baltimore, Maryland]].<ref name="More Trees" /><ref name="Big Trees" /><ref name="Portland" /><ref name="Baltimore" /> Geoffrey Donovan of the [[United States Forest Service]] (USFS), one of the researchers, said, "trees, which provide a range of other benefits, could improve [[quality of life]] in Portland by reducing crime..."<ref name="Big Trees" /> because "We believe that large street trees can reduce crime by signaling to a potential criminal that a neighborhood is better cared for and, therefore, a criminal is more likely to be caught."<ref name="More Trees" /><ref name="Portland" />  Note that the presence of ''large'' street trees especially indicated a reduction in crime, as opposed to newer, smaller trees.<ref name="More Trees" /><ref name="Portland" /> In the 2012 Baltimore study, led by scientists from the [[University of Vermont]] and the [[United States Department of Agriculture]] (USDA), a "conservative spatially adjusted model indicated that a 10% increase in tree canopy was associated with a roughly 12% decrease in crime.... [and] we found that the inverse relationship continued in both contexts, but the magnitude was 40% greater for public than for private lands."<ref name="Baltimore" />

A study in the 2020s showed a strong positive association between "routine maintenance and repair of urban public places (e.g. Street construction projects) with a reduction in community violence, proxied by [[violent crime]] incidents."<ref name=Construction>{{cite journal|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381115172|title=The association between street construction projects and community violence in New York City|date=June 1, 2024|doi=10.1101/2024.05.30.24308120|first1=Brady |last1=Bushover|first2=Andrew |last2=Kim|journal=Journal of Urban Health|volume=102|pages=82–91|pmid=38854117 |access-date=April 2, 2025|pmc=11160860}}</ref> Conversely, a study in the 2020s, showed a strong positive correlation between [[Abandoned house|vacant, abandoned, or "cited" properties]] with [[family violence]].<ref name=Vacant>{{cite journal|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/385849170|first=Julia M.|last=Fleckman|title=From Neighborhood to Household: Connections Between Neighborhood Vacant and Abandoned Property and Family Violence|date=November 14, 2024|journal=Journal of Urban Health |volume=102|pages=72–81|doi=10.1007/s11524-024-00938-9|pmid=38559063 |accessdate=April 2, 2025|pmc=10980094}}</ref> Researchers at [[Tulane University]] found about [[child neglect]] and [[intimate partner violence]] (IPV) that:
{{quote|text=The likelihood of experiencing child maltreatment at 12 months of age was more than twice as high for children living in neighborhoods with high vacant and cited property rates compared with women living in neighborhoods with fewer vacant and cited properties (OR = 2.11, 95% CI = 1.03, 4.31). Women living in neighborhoods characterized by high levels of vacant and cited properties were also more than twice as likely to report IPV (OR = 2.52, 95% CI = 1.21, 5.25). Associations remained mostly stable after controlling for key covariates.}}<ref name=Vacant />

=== Quantification of victim-proneness ===
There have been some studies recently to quantify the real existence of victim-proneness.<ref>David Thissen (The [[University of Kansas]], [[Lawrence, Kansas]]) and Howard Wainer ([[Educational Testing Service]], [[Princeton, New Jersey]]), {{cite journal |title=Toward the Measurement and Prediction of Victim Proneness |journal=Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=243–261 |year=1983 |doi=10.1177/002242788302000206 |last1=Thissen |first1=David |last2=Wainer |first2=Howard |s2cid=145440925 }}</ref> Contrary to the popular belief that more women are repeat victims, and thus more victim-prone than men, actually men in their prime (15- to 34-year-old males) are more likely to be victims of repeated crimes.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Johannes |last=Kingma |title=Repeat Victimization of Victims of Violence: A Retrospective Study From a Hospital Emergency Department for the Period 1971–1995 |journal=Journal of Interpersonal Violence |volume=14|issue= 1|pages= 79–90 |year=1999 |doi=10.1177/088626099014001005|s2cid=73876342 }}</ref>

In the case of juvenile offenders, the study results also show that people are more likely to be victimized as a result of a serious offense by someone they know; the most frequent crimes committed by adolescents towards someone they know were sexual assault, common assault, and homicide.  Adolescents victimizing people they did not know generally committed common assault, forcible confinement, and armed or unarmed robbery.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Lusignan | first1 = Richard | year = 2007 | title = Risk Assessment and Offender–Victim relationship in Juvenile Offenders | journal = International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology | volume = 51 | issue = 4| pages = 433–443 | doi=10.1177/0306624x06294135| pmid = 17652147 | s2cid = 28660909 }}</ref>

Sex workers are, anecdotally, thought to have an abnormally high incidence of violent crime committed against them, and such crimes frequently go unresolved, but there are few victimological studies of the matter.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Shah|first=Svati|date=2004|title=Prostitution, Sex Work and Violence: Discursive and Political Contexts for Five Texts on Paid Sex, 1987–2001|url=http://www.prostitutionresearch.info/pdfs_all/Prostitution_sex_work_violence2004.pdf|journal=Gender & History|volume=16|issue=3|pages=794–812|doi=10.1111/j.0953-5233.2004.00365.x|s2cid=145430604 |access-date=2018-01-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180131200714/http://www.prostitutionresearch.info/pdfs_all/Prostitution_sex_work_violence2004.pdf|archive-date=2018-01-31|url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Fundamental attribution error ===
{{Main|Fundamental attribution error}}
{{See also|Dunning–Kruger effect}}
In [[social psychology]], the [[fundamental attribution error]] (also known as ''correspondence bias'' or ''attribution effect'') describes the tendency to over-value [[disposition]]al or personality-based explanations for the observed [[behaviors]] of others while under-valuing situational explanations for those behaviors. The term was coined by [[Lee Ross]]<ref>Ross, L. (1977). The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: Distortions in the attribution process. 'In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), ''Advances in experimental social psychology'' (vol. 10, pp. 173–220). New York: Academic Press.</ref> some years after a now-classic experiment by [[Edward E. Jones]] and Victor Harris (1967).<ref name="JonesHarris67">{{cite journal | last1 = Jones | first1 = E.E. | last2 = Harris | first2 = V.A. | year = 1967 | title = The attribution of attitudes | journal = Journal of Experimental Social Psychology | volume = 3 | pages = 1–24 | doi=10.1016/0022-1031(67)90034-0}}</ref>

The fundamental attribution error is most visible when people explain the behavior of others. It does not explain interpretations of one's own behavior—where situational factors are often taken into consideration. This discrepancy is called the [[actor–observer bias]].  As a simple example, if Alice saw Bob trip over a rock and fall, Alice might consider Bob to be clumsy or careless (dispositional). If Alice later tripped over the same rock herself, she would be more likely to blame the placement of the rock (situational).  Victim proneness or [[victim blaming]] can be a form of fundamental attribution error, and more specifically, the ''just-world phenomenon''(Aronson, Wilson, Akert, & Sommers, 2016, p.&nbsp;107).<ref>Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., Akert, R. M., Sommers, S. R. (2016). Social Psychology (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.</ref>

The just-world phenomenon or [[Just-world fallacy]] is the belief that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get, which was first theorized by [[Melvin Lerner]] (1977).<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Lerner | first1 = M.J. | last2 = Miller | first2 = D.T. | year = 1977 | title = Just-world research and the attribution process: Looking back and ahead | journal = Psychological Bulletin | volume = 85 | issue = 5| pages = 1030–1051 | doi=10.1037/0033-2909.85.5.1030}}</ref> Attributing failures to dispositional causes rather than situational causes, which are unchangeable and uncontrollable, satisfies our need to believe that the world is fair and we have control over our life. We are motivated to see a just world because this reduces our perceived threats,<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Burger | first1 = J.M. | year = 1981 | title = Motivational biases in the attribution of responsibility for an accident: A meta-analysis of the defensive-attribution hypothesis | journal = Psychological Bulletin | volume = 90 | issue = 3| pages = 496–12 | doi=10.1037/0033-2909.90.3.496}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Walster | first1 = E | year = 1966 | title = Assignment of responsibility for an accident | doi = 10.1037/h0022733| journal = Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | volume = 3 | issue = 1| pages = 73–79 | pmid = 5902079 | s2cid = 26708943 }}</ref> gives us a sense of security, helps us find meaning in difficult and unsettling circumstances, and benefits us psychologically.<ref name="correspondence">Gilbert, D.T., & Malone, P.S. (1995). ''The correspondence bias. Psychological Bulletin'', ''117'', 21–38. [http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~dtg/Gilbert%20&%20Malone%20(CORRESPONDENCE%20BIAS).pdf PDF] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051211090441/http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~dtg/Gilbert%20%26%20Malone%20%28CORRESPONDENCE%20BIAS%29.pdf |date=2005-12-11 }}</ref> Unfortunately, the just-world fallacy also results in a tendency for people to blame and disparage victims of a tragedy or an accident, such as victims of [[rape]]<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Abrams | first1 = D. | last2 = Viki | first2 = G.T. | last3 = Masser | first3 = B. | last4 = Bohner | first4 = G. | year = 2003 | title = Perceptions of stranger and acquaintance rape: The role of benevolent and hostile sexism in victim blame and rape proclivity | journal = Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | volume = 84 | issue = 1| pages = 111–125 | doi=10.1037/0022-3514.84.1.111 | pmid=12518974}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Bell | first1 = S.T. | last2 = Kuriloff | first2 = P.J. | last3 = Lottes | first3 = I. | year = 1994 | title = Understanding attributions of blame in stranger-rape and date-rape situations: An examinations of gender, race, identification, and students' social perceptions of rape victims | journal = Journal of Applied Social Psychology| volume = 24 | issue = 19| pages = 1719–1734 | doi=10.1111/j.1559-1816.1994.tb01571.x}}</ref> and [[domestic abuse]]<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Summers | first1 = G. | last2 = Feldman | first2 = N.S. | year = 1984 | title = Blaming the victim versus blaming the perpetrator: An attributional analysis of spouse abuse | journal = Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology| volume = 2 | issue = 4| pages = 339–347 | doi=10.1521/jscp.1984.2.4.339}}</ref> to reassure themselves of their insusceptibility to such events. People may even blame the victim's faults in "past lives" to pursue justification for their bad outcome.<ref>{{cite book|last=Woogler|first=Roger J.|year=1988|title=Other lives, other selves: A Jungian psychotherapist discovers past lives|location=New York|publisher=Banta|isbn=0553345958}}</ref>{{page needed|date=January 2014}}