Policing and Victims

by Moriarty, Laura J.; Dantzker, Mark L.

• ISBN13: 9780130179203
• ISBN10: 0130179205
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-01-23
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

This exhaustive victimology reader is a collection of ten original essays focusing on the potential areas of conflict between police officers and victims of crime. Compiled in conjunction with prominent scholars in a variety of related fields and a sampling of experienced police officers, the volume is designed to provide readers with a broad view of the issues while reconciling the issues to establish a productive working relationship between the two groups."New victimology," victim reporting, police and sexual assault, multidisciplinary child abuse investigations, domestic violence, rights legislation, campus policing and victim services are all covered in detail.For law enforcement professionals and those in related fields interested in victims' rights, services and responses.

Author Biography

Max L. Bromley is an associate professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida. He has previously served as the associate director of public safety at the University of South Florida and worked in the criminal justice field for almost 25 years. He is the senior coauthor of College Crime Prevention and Personal Safety Awareness, has coedited a volume entitled Hospital and College Security Liability Awareness, and is coauthor of the 5th edition of Crime and Justice in America. In addition, he has written numerous scholarly articles on campus crime and policing as well as technical documents on a variety of criminal justice topics.

Robyn Diehl received her bachelor's degree in psychology from Randolph-Macon College, her master's degree in criminal justice from Virginia Commonwealth University, and is currently enrolled in the doctoral program in developmental psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University, with an emphasis on the effects of community violence on the development of children. Her primary research interest is the effects of lethal and nonlethal violence on criminal behavior. Her most current research is in investigating the effects of violent crime on community response and participation with law enforcement. She has contributed to various technical reports, academic presentations, and scholarly articles.

Bonnie S. Fisher is an associate professor in the Division of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati. She has a Ph.D. degree from Northwestern University (1988). Her research interests include student victimization, violence against college women, campus policing, institutions' responses to a report of sexual assault, and attitudes toward rehabilitation and corrections. Dr. Fisher's most recent work appears in Criminology Security Journal, Justice Quarterly, among others. She is the coeditor of the book, Campus Crime: Legal, Social, and Policy Perspectives.

Denise Kindschi Gosselin is a Massachusetts state trooper and an instructor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Western New England College. Her earned degrees include the master of science in criminal justice, Westfield State College (Massachusetts, 1990). Her research interests include domestic violence issues, distance learning, and juvenile justice. Trooper Gosselin is the author of Heavy Hands: An Introduction to the Crimes of Domestic Violence (Prentice-Hall, 2000).

Janet R. Hutchinson is an associate professor and the director of the Public Administration Program, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Virginia Commonwealth University. Her earned degrees include the Ph.D. in public policy, University of Pittsburgh (1993). Dr. Hutchinson worked as a consultant and administrator in public child welfare agencies for 15 years before entering academia. Her most recent work has been in public policy decision making and knowledge use, and in applications of feminist theory to public policy decision making. She is currently working on a book that examines the development of family preservation policies in the United States between 1970 and 1990.

Robert A. Jerin is a professor and chair of the Law and Justice Department at Endicott College. His earned degrees include the Ph.D. in criminal justice from Sam Houston State University (1987). His research interests include restorative justice, crime prevention, victimology, and domestic violence. Dr. Jerin is the author of numerous book chapters and scholarly articles. He is the coauthor of Victims of Crime (Nelson Hall) and the coeditor of Current Issues in Victimology Research (Carolina Academic Press).

Peter J. Mercier is a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, specializing in computer-related crimes. He has 17 years of law enforcement experience. His earned degrees include the master of art in sociology, Old Dominion University. Professor Mercier is an adjunct instructor at Old Dominion University and St. Leo College. His research interests include domestic violence issues and computer deviance. Professor Mercier is the coeditor of Battlecries from the Homefront: Violence in the Military Family (Charles C. Thomas, 2000).

Tracy Woodard Meyers is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice at Valdosta State University. She received the Ph.D. in family relations with an emphasis in traumatology from Florida State University (1996). She has conducted research in the area of secondary traumatic stress. Her research interests include domestic violence, crisis intervention, child welfare, and trauma and the family. Dr. Meyers is a Florida Abuse Registry Counselor. Additionally, before joining the faculty at VSU, Dr. Meyers spent 10 years working with trauma victims in a variety of social.service agencies. She is the author of numerous research articles and book chapters.

Laura J. Moriarty is a professor of criminal justice and assistant dean, College of Humanities and Sciences, at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her earned degrees include the Ph.D., Sam Houston State University (1988). Her research areas include victims of crime, victimology, fear of crime, and violent crime. She is the author, coauthor, or coeditor of four books: Victims of Crime (with Robert Jerin, Nelson-Hall, 1998), American Prisons: An Annotated Bibliography (with Elizabeth McConnell, Greenwood Press, 1998), Current Issues in Vctimology Research (with Robert Jerin, Carolina Academic Press, 1998), and Criminal Justice Technology in the 21 st Century (with David Carter, Charles C. Thomas, 1998). Additionally, Dr. Moriarty has published numerous scholarly articles, book chapters, and nonrefereed articles.

Matthew B. Robinson is an assistant professor of criminal justice in the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice at Appalachian State University. His earned degrees include the Ph.D. in criminology and criminal justice, Florida State University (1997). His research areas include criminological theory, criminal victimization, and crime prevention. Dr. Robinson is the author of many scholarly articles appearing in the American Journal of Criminal Justice, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, Corrections Compendium, Western Criminology Review, and Journal of Crime and Justice.

Amie R. Scheidegger is an assistant professor of criminal justice at Charleston Southern University. She received her B.S. in criminal justice from Illinois State University in 1990. She earned her M.S. in 1993 and Ph.D. in 1998 in criminology/criminal justice from Florida State University. Her major research interests are female crime and crime prevention. She is currently researching in the area of domestic violence.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Laura J. Moriarty
Acknowledgments	xi
Contributors' Biographical Information	xiii
PART I FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
The Case for a ``New Victimology'': Implications for Policing	1	(16)
Matthew B. Robinson
Suitable Responses to Victimization: How Police Should Treat Victims	17	(18)
Amie R. Scheidegger
Victim Reporting: Strategies to Increase Reporting	35	(22)
Peter J. Mercier
PART II VICTIMIZATION ISSUES
Policing and Sexual Assault: Strategies for Successful Victim Interviews	57	(18)
Tracy Woodard Meyers
Police Involvement in Child Maltreatment: Multidisciplinary Child Abuse Investigations	75	(12)
Janet R. Hutchinson
Victim Interviewing in Cases of Domestic Violence: Techniques for Police	87	(22)
Denise Kindschi Gosselin
PART III RESOURCE ISSUES
Victims' Rights Legislation: An Overview	109	(14)
Robert A. Jerin
State and Federal Victim Resources and Services	123	(10)
Laura J. Moriarty
Robyn Diehl
Campus Policing and Victim Services	133	(26)
Max L. Bromley
Bonnie S. Fisher
Policing and Victims: Children and Others	159
M.L. Dantzker
Laura J. Moriarty

Excerpts

PrefacePolice officers are the first representatives of the criminal justice system victims encounter. In many instances, these first encounters result in conflict. For the most part, when victims contact the police, they expect immediate results. Police officers, conversely, expect victims to provide accurate reporting of the events that led to the call for service. These two expectations often result in conflict between the two, when indeed, the two should be allies, working together to resolve the matter.When police officers and victims do work together, there is a much greater probability of resolving the case. Much of the conflict between police officers and victims stems from a lack of understanding on both parts. The police do not know what victims expect, need, or want from police officers, and victims do not know what police are expected to do.This ambiguity and lack of clarification regarding the roles and responsibilities of police officers is enhanced as police departments move from a traditional style of policing toward a more "community" type of policing. It is difficult for police officers operating under a traditional style of policing to know what the expectations, in general, are for police officers. Without training or educating the officers, it will further separate police officers and victims.The purpose of this book is to identify potential areas of conflict between police officers and victims. If we educate and train both current and future police officers on the issues of possible conflict between the two, we can begin to establish a more productive working relationship where the police and victims start to comprehend each others' position more accurately.This reader is a collection of ten original chapters focusing on the topics of concern voiced by police officers. A focus group was conducted. About a dozen police officers with experience ranging from six to twenty years provided a list of topics they considered paramount for a victimology reader in order to increase their awareness and understanding of victims' concerns and issues.Contributors to the reader are both practitioners in the field of criminal justice as well as academicians in the fields of criminology, criminal justice, law, policing, political science, social work, and public administration. The book is divided into three sections: Part I--Fundamental Issues, Part II--Victimization Issues, and Part III--Resource Issues.Part I consists of three chapters. In the first chapter, Matt Robinson defines the termvictimology.In the most elementary of definitions, victimology is the study of victims. However, as Robinson explains, the definition of victimology may focus on victims (i.e., people) harmed by illegal acts (e.g., personal or property crime) or it may be broadened to include other types of victims (i.e., organizations, groups, entities) harmed by illegal acts (e.g., environmental crime, corporate crime, white-collar crime, organized crime). Although other authors have argued for a broader definition of victimology, none have actually conceptualized the term. Robinson does this, and he also provides a typology of victimization by offender and victim type. Perhaps most important for this reader, Robinson takes his "new victimology" and applies it to policing--explaining how this new definition impacts policing.In Chapter 2, Amie Scheidegger explains how the police should treat victims. As she points out in her chapter, "How the police respond to victims of crime impacts the outcome of a case, the recovery process of the victim(s), police-community relations, an individual's faith in and respect for the police, and his or her willingness to cooperate with police/law enforcement in the future." Therefore, it is imperative that police officers learn how to respond appropriately to crime victims. In her chapter, Scheidegger presents info