This version of the course guide is provisional until the period for editing the new course guides ends.

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Victimology

Code: 100436 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2500257 Criminology OB 2

Contact

Name:
Manuel Casado Gómez
Email:
manuel.casado@uab.cat

Teachers

Andrea Riera Campillo
Laura Zurera Benito

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

  • The teaching of the subject will be taught taking into account the perspective of the Sustainable Development Goals.
  • Theory classes will be taught in Catalan and Spanish. Seminars 11 and 12 will be taught in Catalan. seminar 13 will be taught in Spanish.

Objectives and Contextualisation

  • The course focuses on different dimensions of victimology: theories of victimization, processes of victimization, impact of crime on victims, the relationship between victim and the criminal justice system, the victim's role in the criminal policy, the victim's help programs, the psychology of the criminal victimization, the evaluation methodology, the forensic victimology, the clinical and psychosocial victimology specific to the different criminal areas.
  • The aim of the course are the folowing: (a)  Learn the basic concepts in the field and get familiar with data on victimization, (b) Be able to understand scientific papers in victimology, (3) Be able to evaluate the risk of victimization and (4) Being enabled to manage a victim’s support program.

Competences

  • Ability to analyse and summarise.
  • Assessing the victim's needs in order to carry out an intervention proposal.
  • Carrying out a victim care program.
  • Demonstrating a comprehension of the victim's needs on the basis of the knowledge of victimological theories.
  • Drawing up an academic text.
  • Identifying the legal framework concerning the rights and resources of the victims.
  • Respectfully interacting with other people.
  • Using non-discriminatory and respectful language when referring to the several parties involved in conflict and criminality.
  • Verbally transmitting ideas to an audience.
  • Working autonomously.
  • Working in teams and networking.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Ability to analyse and summarise.
  2. Applying an appropriate intervention model to a specific needs of a crime victim.
  3. Assessing in a scientific way a victim's needs concerning a criminal act.
  4. Drawing up an academic text.
  5. Implementing a crime victim care program.
  6. Properly applying the current legislation concerning crime victims.
  7. Respectfully interacting with other people.
  8. Using an appropriate language concerning social equity criteria in professional explanations.
  9. Verbally transmitting ideas to an audience.
  10. Working autonomously.
  11. Working in teams and networking.

Content

Part I. Introduction

  • 1. What is a victim? Types of victimization. Risk of victimization.

Part II. Theories

  • 2. History of victimology. Victimization theories. Types of victims. Victimization risk

Part III. The victim and the criminal justice system

  • 3. National and international legal regulations on victims. The victim role in the criminal justice system: police investigation, trial, sentence and release. The status of the victim, 4/2015.
  • 4. Victims and criminal policy. The influence of victims on criminal policy.

Part IV. Victim Assistance Programs

  • 5. Victim-offender mediation programs.
  • 6. Victim-support agencies. Assessmentof victims.
  • 7. Protection of witness. Compensation of victims. Victim associations.

Part V Crime's effect on victims

  • 8. Psychology of criminal victimization. The consequences of victimization. The transactional model of Lazaurus and Folkman
  • 9. Assessment and intervention with victims. Methods of assessment. Child assessment. Individual and group programs of intervention with victims.
  • 10. Forensic Victimology. Basic concepts in the assessment of the consequences of crime. Psychological assessment. The trauma of crime. Post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSS) and other common disorders. The expert report in the Court.
  • 11. Victimization in different areas: domestic violence, IPV, sexual aggression, assault, and victims of traffic incidents. Workplace and school bullying. Child abuse and sexual violence.
  • 12. New types of criminal victimization. Cyberbullying.

Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lectures 19.5 0.78 6, 2, 3, 5, 7, 1, 9, 10, 8
Seminars 19.5 0.78 6, 2, 3, 5, 7, 1, 9, 10, 11, 8
Type: Autonomous      
Exam 5 0.2 6, 2, 3, 5, 1, 10
Reading, analysis and synthesis of texts 30 1.2 6, 2, 3, 5, 4, 1, 10, 11, 8
Search for information and documentation 16 0.64 6, 2, 3, 5, 1, 10, 11, 8
Writing essays 60 2.4 6, 2, 3, 5, 4, 7, 1, 9, 10, 11, 8

Statement

  • The teaching of the subject is face-to-face
  • Lectures will be provided with ICT support and active participation of students will be promoted. In seminars real cases will be discussed and students will present their individual and group work.
  • Exercises for each issue worked in class.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Exam 40 % 0 0 6, 2, 3, 5, 4, 1, 10, 8
Individual / group work of theory 30 % 0 0 6, 2, 3, 5, 4, 1, 10, 8
Report in group of practices 30 % 0 0 6, 2, 3, 5, 7, 1, 9, 10, 11, 8

Continuous Evaluation model

  • The model is based on continuous evaluation.
  • The evaluation is based on the following criteria:
    • a) Exercises for each issue worked in class and Individual / group works after thematic blocs 3, 4 and 5 (30%).
    • b) Oral presentation of the group work in seminars  and a report in group of practices (30%).
    • c) Students will take a final multiple-choise exam of the subject at the end of the class period (40%). In case of a failing grade, they will have the opportunity to resit. 
  • To pass the subject it is required: a) To obtain an average mark of 5/10; b) To have at least 5 in each of the evaluating activities.
  • Students will be assessable as long as they have completed a set of activities whose weight is equivalent to a minimum of 2/3 of the total grade for the subject. If the value of the activities carried out does not reach this threshold, the subject teacher may consider the student as non-evaluable.

Attendance requirement

  • Attendance at classes, both theoretical and seminars, is mandatory. A minimum of 80% attendance is required to pass the subject. 

  • Justified absences will not count negatively and the teacher will facilitate the recovery of classes in the case of justified absence. For an absence to be justified, it must be documented. Only those arising from force majeure such as illness or similar situations that prevent attendance at teaching activities can be justified absences. Carrying out other formative activities of the degree may be considered an excused absence if the professor responsible for the subject accepts this in advance.
  • In the event that the teaching activity cannot be carried out due to a strike by the students or the teacher, the students are obliged to prepare the subject on their own. In any case, all subjects provided for in the teaching guide will be subject to evaluation. The teacher may provide the student with specific material to prepare the subject that has been covered in the classroom. (Agreement of the mixed commission of the degree, June 2012).

Resit

  • Students will have the opportunity of repeating the exam and exercises in which they have obtained a fail mark. Maximum mark in case of resit will be pass.

Punctuality

  • Classes start on time. Late arrival and leaving the class before the schedule is not allowed, except reasonable justification.

Fraudulent conduct

  • In case of cheating in an exam the student will get a 0, loosing alsothe right to a resit exam.
    A student that will present an exercise or work that contains signs of plagiarism or he/she can not justify the arguments of his/her exercise, will get a 0 and receive a warning. In case of reiteration of conduct, the student will fail the subject (0) and will lose the rightto resit.

Single Evaluation model

  • The model is based on single evaluation. Students who request a single evaluation must take a final test, in which they must demonstrate that they have acquired all the skills of the subject
  • The evaluation is based on the following criteria:
    • a) Written exam (40% of the final mark). There will be an exam at the end of the course on the contents of the 5 blocks of the subject. During the course, the evaluable contents will be detailed.
    • b) Practical exam (30% of the final mark). It will be necessary to answer questions about cases that will be found on campus (related to the contents of the practical classes of the seminars).
    • c) Delivery of a reflection paper (30% of the final mark). Details on the reflection paper will be provided at the beginning of the course.
  • To pass the subject it is required: a) To obtain an average mark of 5/10; b) To have at least 5 in each of the evaluating activities.
  • The single assessment guidelines for the Faculty of Law can be found at the following link:  https://www.uab.cat/doc/PautesAvaluacioUnica

Student at the University of Abast

  • Due to the special condition in this course, the students of the Universitat a l'Abast will contact the people responsible forthe subject at the beginning of the course to be able to set the evaluation and follow-up objectives of the course.

Bibliography

Compulsory material:

  • Documents with PowerPoint slides used in lectures and seminars
  • Files of practical cases

Recommended material:

  • Baca, Enrique; Echeburúa, Enrique; Tamarit , Josep Maria (2006). Manual de Victimología. Tirant lo Blanch.
  • Pereda, Noemi; Tamarit, Josep Maria (2013). Victimología: Teórica y Aplicada. Huygens. 

Other recommended handbooks

  • Garcia-Pablos, Antonio. (2005). Criminología: una Introducción a sus Fundamentos Teóricos. Tirant lo Blanch.
  • Redondo, Santiago; Garrido, Vicente (2023). Principios de Criminología (5ª ed.). Tirant lo Blanch.
  • Landrove, Gerardo.(1998). La Moderna Victimologia. Tirant lo Blanch.
  • Soria, Miguel Ángel; Saiz Roca, Dolores. (2006). Psicología Criminal. Pearson-Prentice Hall.
  • Soria, Miguel Ángel (Ed.); Garrido, Elena; Rodríguez, Rebeca; Tejedor, Didier. (2014). Manual de Psicologia Penal Forense. Atelier.

 Bibliography on specific issues 

  • American Psychiatric Association (2014). Manual Diagnóstico y Estadístico De Los Trastornos Mentales-DSM 5. Médica Panamericana.
  • Cantón Duarte, José & Cortés Arboleda, María Rosario (2003). Guía Para el Abuso Sexual Infantil. Pirámide.
  • Diges, Margarita & Alonso-Quecuty, María Luisa. (1993). Psicología Forense Experimental. Promolibro.
  • Echeburúa, Enrique & Del Corral, Paz. (2002). Manual de Violencia Familiar. Siglo XXI.
  • Soria, Miguel Ángel (1992). Transactional model of victimization (MTV) based on the stress of sexual assault.  (Doctoral thesis, University of Barcelona). http://hdl.handle.net/2445/42751
  • Soria, Miguel Ángel & Hernández, José Antonio (1994). El Agresor Sexual y La Víctima. Marcombo.

Software

  • Moodle environment (virtual campus) and microsoft Office package

Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan/Spanish second semester morning-mixed