Question: Critically assess the notion of an ‘ideal victim’ and how it has been used in media portrayals of crime
(No plagiarism allowed)
Essential Reading below:
Victims, crime and society
Book by Pamela Davies; Peter Francis; Chris Greer 2007
Case study examples:
Madeline McCann
Sarah everard
James Bulger
Stephen Lawrence- from ‘unworthy’victim to worthy ‘victim’
-Refer to articles on “ideal victims examples”
What are the demographic characteristics of the victim (eg Madeline McCann, young child, white girl, child to working parents)
-Think of gender,race,age playing a big role in ideal victim
-Refer to how media portray an ‘ideal victim’ / Moral panic/ News exaggeration
Refer to Media representations of victims
Who are seen as ‘ideal’ & ‘worthy’ victims?
Refer to victimisation in media
-over-representation
-under-representation
THE “IDEAL VICTIM”
“A person or category of individuals who –
when hit by crime – most readily are given
the complete and legitimate status of
being a victim” (Christie 1986:18)
Film and television stories focus increasingly on the plight of victims, whose suffering is portrayed more graphically and often constitutes the driving force of the story (Reiner et al. 2001)
Refer to Nils Christie’s typology of an ‘ideal victim’
1. Weak in relation to the offender
•female, sick, very old, or very young (or a combination of these)
2. Acting virtuously, or on legitimate, ordinary everyday
business
3. Blameless
4. Not a threat to other important issues
•Examples: Armed conflict, emergency evacuations (ships/planes etc.)
•Ratna Kapur (2002) ‘women and children’
•Umberto Eco (1985) ‘stereotyped iconographical unit
Refer to MORAL PANICS
“the creation of this ‘folk devil’, against which all ‘respectable citizens’ could unite, tapped into escalating fears around crime, race and social decline, and allowed the State to reassert and re-legitimate itself…by stamping down hard on the problem from above”
(Cohen, 1972)
Refer to files for marking criteria
