There is even something called the 'friendly parent' doctrine: "custody should be awarded to the parent most likely to foster the child's relationship with the other parent, i.e., the 'friendly parent'" (Dore 2006: 41)
While growing awareness of the extent of the problem has lead to stricter laws to protect the lives of the victims, the legal system still falls short in many respects. "Family law is, perhaps more than any other area of the law, a reflection of some of society's most intimate and volatile beliefs" and the court system remains change-resistant to a great degree (Farney & Valente 2003: 36)
Now, certain crimes pertaining to domestic violence can be prosecuted by the Department of Justice when they occur across state lines. It became a federal crime to "injure, harass, or intimidate that person's intimate partner when in the course of or as a result of such travel the defendant intentionally commits a violent crime and thereby causes bodily injury" (Groban 2011)
In these cases, state legislatures must step in to help victims. For example, in the state of Ohio, victims of domestic violence or victims protected by the court can "have their mail sent directly to the Secretary of State's Office," which will then forward the mail to participants, whose addresses would not be included in public records" (Kovac 2010)
The authors demonstrate how predators prey on the seemingly weak and naive by citing a Utah-based rape case and also tragic molestation cases involving children. Rape is a common type of crime in which predators carefully select victims based on their "predictability" (Cooper, King, & McHoes, 16)
Victimization can have a considerable impact on the perpetrator, victim, community and government. For the victims themselves, consequences of victimization may include, but are not limited to physical, emotional, psychological, and financial costs that are a direct result of their victimization (AuCoin and Beauchamp)
Within victimology, there are three different approaches to be considered: positivist, radical, and critical. Positivist victimology holds that certain victims may contribute to their own victimization (Dignan 32)
Abusers will do anything in order to assert their power over another individual including using fear, guilt, shame, and intimidation. Physical abuse can include, but is not limited to, any and all forms of beating, treatments that injure the victim such as burning, and the neglect of the victim's physical needs ("Emotional, Physical, and Sexual Abuse of Children and Teens")
When we feel the pain and fear caused by crime, we demand ever greater punishment for offenders, as if this will bring relief." (McCold, 1995) McCold relates that while the 'get-tough' rhetoric's 1995) There is no existing empirical evidence of a credible nature that any type of punishment actually results in a reduction in crime
The work Sherman and Strang (2007) entitled: "Restorative Justice: The Evidence" relates a study with the goal of testing two claims which are made quite often concerning processes of restorative justice: (1) Restorative justice provides more procedural fairness for both victims and offenders and is more humane and respectful in responding to a crime than the criminal justice system; and (2) Restorative justice provides more effective outcomes such as lower recidivism, more repair of harm, fewer crimes of revenge, and more offences brought to justice." (Sherman and Strang, 2007) Sherman and Strang utilized various databases were used for identification of existing research on restorative justice
An indirect victim of abuse might, for example, internalize the violent behaviors of the father because he can see that his mother is submissive after the parents have a big fight. Knowing that the yelling and occasional hitting has worked in his father's favor, the child then starts bullying fellow children at school (Bogan, 2011)
physical force or coercion will almost always result in a felony life offense." (Dannison) The laws relating to juvenile sexual offenses are typically categorized in the same manner as adult ones
On a school day." (Reckdahl) There are a number of issues which may be skewing these statistics, and which should be considered
"Studies of adult sex offenders suggest another dimension of the problem: many of these offenders began their sexually abusive behavior in their youth." (Righthand & Welch, Executive Summary) In no other era have juveniles been so often perceived as (and active as) sexual predators
From this point, other assessment can be made about the offender's likely background including his knowledge of forensic and police procedures, his possible occupation, his physical characteristics and social skills. When possible, conclusion made by the profiler about the offender should be checked off against other inputs such as eyewitness accounts and the information available from the crime scene (Petherick, 2008)
However, victimology may also relate to violations of human rights and is not only used to refer to the victims of crime. Victimology is important to study as it relates to criminal opportunity and the solving of violent criminal acts, because it can help give the police ideas about who might have committed the crime and why the victim was targeted (Karmen, 2003)
The tertiary victims are the farthest removed from the crime. They are not related to the crime, but they may see the crime on the news or hear about it through other media and be upset by the footage to which they are exposed (Sebba, 1996)
Victimology means the study of victimization, including how victims and offenders are related to one another. In addition, the connections that victims have with the criminal justice system and other institutions and groups are important (Van Ness, 1986)
Victimologists discover that anyone can suffer bad luck of being at the wrong place at the wrong time but don't understand why some people are targeted more than others. However, the findings by both criminologists and victimologists are used to help in explaining the concept of crime (Grivette, 2011)
While this field is closely related to criminology, it focuses on victimization or victims associated with a particular criminal offense. Throughout its history, this field benefits from contributions of psychologists, lawyers, criminal justice officials, sociologists, social workers, doctors, nurses, political scientists and other professionals (Karmen, 2009, p