Accounting for Victimization: Social Constructionist Perspectives

Abstract

This paper reviews research and theory on the social construction of victims and victimization. There are four areas of inquiry: victims' self-processes, the collaborative accomplishment of victimization, social problems claims-making, and social movement framing. Scholars in each area take a symbolic interactionist perspective. Because victimization is potentially stigmatizing, much of this research and analysis draws on the literature on vocabularies of motive, aligning activities, and accounts. Literature on self-processes examines how victims come to see themselves as victims and their situations as deviant. Often, when they try to establish their victim identities with others, they can be discredited or blamed if they do not meet expectations of typical victims. When people want to show that a social problem exists, they use images of victims to evoke sympathy and other emotions. Sometimes, collective identities may not be sympathetic, and also need to be managed, through the framing work of activists.1602 Accounting for Victimization

Observer reactions to emotional victims of serious crimes: stereotypes and expectancy violations

“…Research on the emotional victim effect (EVE; Ask & Landström, 2010) suggests that observers generally expect victims to express emotions of negative valence in an intensity that is in line with the perceived severity of the victimization (also: Golding, Fryman, Marsil, & Yozwiak, 2003). Although any emotion that brings about unpleasant associations, such as sadness, fear, or anger, may be classified under 'emotions of negative valence', the types of emotions that seem to befit the stereotypical victim are those that correspond with the ideal victim portrayal of someone who is vulnerable, powerless, and passive (Dunn, 2008;Lamb, 1999). In other words, regardless of what emotions victims experience in reality in reaction to injustice (Smith & Lazarus, 1993), observers are likely to expect them to express emotions that signal passivity and low status (e.g.…”

“Whoa! They Could’ve Arrested Me!”: Unsuccessful Identity Claims of Women During Police Response to Intimate Partner Violence

“…Women who want to bring about a desired outcome from the police need to present a particular type of self. Some of the women that I interviewed engaged in successful identity work, meaning that they made themselves "believed and believable" (Dunn 2008(Dunn , p. 1607. These women were interpreted by responding police officers in the same way that they attempted to present themselves, resulting in the women achieving their desired outcomes.…”

“…Constructionist understandings of victimization are most concerned with the collaborative social processes through which a person is understood or categorized as a "victim" or a "victimizer" (Dunn 2008;Harris 2006;Holstein and Miller 1997). As Dunn (2008) argues, following Holstein and Miller, "would-be 'victims' and potential labelers work together to create meaning and thus victimization is an 'interactional process' and 'interactionally constituted.'"…”

“…As Dunn (2008) argues, following Holstein and Miller, "would-be 'victims' and potential labelers work together to create meaning and thus victimization is an 'interactional process' and 'interactionally constituted.'" (p.1607) These interactional processes are shaped and constrained by social perceptions of violence against women and female victims.…”

Event and Victimization

“…In addition, as Walklate (2003) has argued, the labeling approach offers no ''real possibility of an alternative methodological agenda for the discipline itself'' (Walklate 2003: 39). Related to the labeling approach is the generically titled 'social constructionist' approach to victimization (see Best 1997;Leisenring 2006;Dunn 2008). The main problem with this perspective is that it does not recognize the impact of victimization on the bodies of individuals and the relationship of the individual to their world.…”