Читать книгу Approaching Victimology as social science for Human rights a Spanish perspective онлайн

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According to van Dijk, the use of the word “victim” to refer to victims of crime seems to be a quite modern one, coming from the humanization of the stories of the Passion of Christ and a growing understanding of the psychological mechanisms of scapegoating, although this interpretation has been debated (Galona, 2018; van Dijk, 2020) and might not work for other non-Western languages.

1.1. WHAT IS TO BE A VICTIM?

Beyond the mysteries of its etymological origin, we will concentrate on defining the notion of victim nowadays. We could try to answer this difficult question by saying that to be a victim is to be considered a victim by society and, perhaps, the criminal justice system. The notion of the victim always entails the interaction between a subjective (self-perception about the meaning, seriousness and impact of harm, its injustice and the need for redress) and an objective dimension with individual, group and collective elements and processes involved. The objective dimension of the status of victim is its link to different concepts according to the discipline considered and is related to the notion of victimhood as the acknowledgement of the status of victim. In all dimensions, we have to consider the hegemonic hidden victimisation.

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