Victims and offenders often have personal connections, such as family or acquaintances. In violent crimes, victims and perpetrators are more likely to know each other. Victim-offender reconciliation programs focus on the relationship after a crime, and some offenders were previously victims themselves. However, victims should never be blamed for an offender’s actions.
It is not uncommon for victims and attackers to share common links. Mostly, this connection is of personal acquaintance, family or lifestyle. In most cases of child molestation, research shows that victims know the perpetrators personally, and in many cases, the perpetrator is an actual family member. In violent crimes against grown men, about half of all victims know their attacker. In crimes against adult women, as many as 70% of victims know an offender personally before a crime is committed.
There may be common bonds between victims and offenders through family relationships, peer relationships, work relationships, intimate relationships, or casual acquaintances. These connections also concern the types of crimes committed. In cases of violent crime, the victims and perpetrators know each other more frequently, but in crimes of robbery or vandalism it is much less common for them to know each other beforehand.
In cases between victims and familiar offenders, there appears to be a trend involving offenders who are older than their victims. These relationships include parents victimizing children, older siblings victimizing younger siblings, or older relatives victimizing younger siblings. This trend could also be related to that of offenders preying on victims who are perceived as weak or easy targets.
When considering the connection between these two groups, most people automatically focus on a relationship before a crime is committed. Through victim-offender reconciliation programs, however, a focus on the relationship between the victim and offender after a crime becomes the primary focus. In such programs, convicted criminals and their victims agree to meet to discuss the reasons for the crime. Victim-offender reconciliation also allows the offender to apologize for her actions and the victim to find potential closure as a means of putting the psychological trauma in the past.
The process in which a victim becomes an offender is another common link between these two groups. It is not uncommon for an offender to have also been a previous victim of a crime. These crimes often refer to various forms of child abuse and neglect, gang violence, or other peer violence, such as bullying. Without the tools to deal with the crimes committed against them, these individuals continue to victimize others.
Victims and offenders might have common bonds prior to the commission of a crime, but an innocent victim should not be blamed for the offender’s motives, choices, or actions. As is sometimes the case in crimes involving sexual abuse or assault, offenders may attempt to blame the victim and others for certain actions that lead up to the crime. The connection between victims and offenders, however, should never be used as an excuse for a crime.
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