Why victimology should focus on all victims, including all missing and disappeared persons

Abstract

This article examines issues concerning the scope and role of victimology specifically as far as they relate to missing and disappeared persons. It argues that victimology ought to have a greater effect on the world by dealing with more victims, and that it should not be a solely academic discipline. It is contended that victimology should confront the real issues that arise for the victims after the crimes they suffer, and thus it needs to play a far more pragmatic, practical role. It is reasoned that broadening the study of who victims are, how they become victims and how their fate and suffering could have been avoided will also have a meaningful effect. This is also true regarding what can be done to reduce the numbers of (potential) victims. The article specifically calls on victimology to deal with victims who have gone missing. It argues that even amongst victimologists studying the widest variety of affected victims, there is almost no focus on the missing. The article goes into detail about who the missing are, and analyses the circumstances surrounding missing persons, whether as a result of war, human rights abuses such as enforced disappearances, or disasters, organized violence, migration and many more. The article also touches upon the processes of finding missing persons and considers their legal, technical and societal implications.

Is It Possible to Estimate Spanish Missing Person’s Forced and Fatal Outcomes Cases Using Socio-demographic Data? Gender, Age and Nationality

“…The research has mainly focused on five different facets: explanation of the phenomenon (causes and motives); description of missing people and disappearances; study of the effectiveness of missing person appeals; building empirical missing person's typologies; and identification of risk factors of harm/fatal outcomes (e.g. Baker et al, 2002;Biehal et al, 2003;Lampinen et al, 2009;Bonny et al, 2016;Buckley, 2012;Sarkin, 2019;Woolnough et al, 2019;García-Barceló et al, 2020a, b, c;Huey & Ferguson, 2020;Woolnough & Cunningham, 2020).…”

An exploration of unsolved missing persons cases suspected of a criminal outcome: A forensic victimology approach

“…The current study aims to explore the circumstances surrounding these disappearances by focussing on missing person information from a victimological framework. While victimology has somewhat moved away from the scientific study of victimization and victims (see Fattah, 2019 about the shift from a victimology of the act to an action victimology), several authors have emphasised the importance of this approach to improve the understanding of criminal disappearances (Fyfe et al., 2015; Sarkin, 2019). The objective of this study consists of empirically describing the circumstances surrounding criminal disappearances and examine whether there are different sub‐categories within these cases.…”

Victimology and judicialized public policies. A study on complex victims of the Colombian armed conflict

“…It is a science that has involved beliefs, values, norms, rules, organizations and institutions, which were initially dedicated to the study of victimological typologies, victims’ rights and innovative practices of assistance to this population. However, currently some authors such as Dussich (2015) and Groenhuijsen (2003) refer to a ‘mature victimology’, which has not only converted the traditional punitive criminal law into a restorative criminal law but also assumed a much more pragmatic and practical role in addressing the various problems faced by victims after suffering crimes (Sarkin, 2019).…”