Review Article:Victims of Crime

These four studies are clear testimony to the 'rediscovery' of the victims of crime that has occurred in the last two decades, following a long period of neglect by academics, practitioners, penal reformers and governments. Although the nominal origins of this revival of interest may be traced back to the somewhat earlier development of 'victimology' among a handful of European and North American criminologists investigating the contribution of victims to 'their' crimes, the major impetus came with the rapid growth of crime victimisation surveys in the 1970s. From the outset, these surveys revealed a huge pool of hidden victimisation, and indicated some of the reasons why victims chose not to report the crimes to the police. They subsequently began to focus on other aspects of the impact of crime, such as the extent of the fear of crime amongst members of the public, and the effects of crimes upon those who had been victimised. The first national British Crime Survey (BCS) did not take place until 1982 (with a second survey in 1984 and another planned for 1988), and incorporated comparative questions on these more qualitative aspects of victimisation. Data from the British Crime Surveys have been made available by the Home Office to other researchers and was drawn upon by Maguire and Corbett and by Mawby and Gill in their important reviews of the work of victims support schemes in Britain.