Googling "Victimization"

First Entry: Bureau of Crime Statistics -- good news!

1. Since 1994, violent crime rates have declined, reaching the lowest level ever recorded in 2005.
2. Property crime rates continue to decline
3. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports,--
   The violent crime rate increased 1.3% from 2004 to 2005. From 1996 to 2005 the rate fell 26.3%.
4. The property crime rate decreased 2.4% from 2004 to 2005. From 1996 to 2005, the rate fell 22.9%.

Second Entry: Victimization

1. Victimization and Race
   Young Black Male Victims (BJS Brief, 1994)
2. Victimization and Gender
   Murder by spouses (BJS study summary)
   Murder by spouses (BJS study, full)
   Violence Against Women, '95
   Victimology/Social Work (Patricia McClendon's homepage)

Any questions, drop a note to: Critical Criminology - critcrim@sun.soci.niu.edu

The third entry -- now we're getting into it:

The Sexual Victimization of College Women
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTMLWhat is the extent of visual and verbal sexual victimization? ... victimization of college women and have conducted a number of studies. ...

The fourth entry:

The Trauma of Victimization - Help after a Victimization ...
There is often financial loss and physical injury connected with victimization, but the most devastating part for many victims is the emotional pain caused ...

The fifth entry:

Empowerment and Victimization - the power of choice
When we say I have to, we are making a victim statement. A column about how owning the power of choice can help to empower an individual - by codependency ...

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I don't need to continue -- you get the drift. The concept is far-reaching and has lots of perspectives. You can study crime to identify its victims; you can consider society and how it creates victims. You can identify a segment of society that is victimized by some circumstance or event or social culture...that could range from statistical analysis to a personal journey.

I was delighted to see that it was only the 4th entry that started talking about pain and help for victims, and the 5th entry is about empowerment.

Now, I'm not going to comment on the individual entries as far as the quality of their data or the candor of the testimony. What I do want to talk about is the reality of victimization and the choices we make that begin to determine if we fall into one of those statistical categories of victim or we take on the burden of being victimized.

While becoming a crime statistic is not something we can or would seek, or even to avoid, becoming a victim is a subtler outcome. Today's Virginia Tech tragedies bear that out as I watch the interviews. 33 deaths create some very ugly crime statistics ... all victims of senseless violence. The scope of the devastation -- the pain of the families watching and waiting for news -- all more unsettling than I can put to words.

As a parent of 3 20-somethings, I cannot fathom the pain and terror associated with a random act of violence meted out on a college campus. But while I sit here watching interviews, I am strongly affected by watching some of the survivors talk about the day. While I know there are a great many back in their rooms or heading home, terrified and stricken with fear, these students who have ventured out to talk about the day, the experience, the survival -- they are on the path to healing. They experienced the event -- some even wounded -- but they are not showing signs of being victims. What defines that? What empowers that choice?

I've got some thinking to do. More later.