Who is the ‘little old lady’ of international crimes? Nils Christie’s concept of the ideal victim reinterpreted

Abstract

This article discusses to what extent Nils Christie's famous stereotype of the 'ideal victim' is applicable in a context of international crimes. It argues that the characteristics of the ideal victim of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes largely overlap with the ideal victim of conventional crimes. Nevertheless, victims of international crimes face much more difficulty in publicizing their fate and consequently 'benefiting' from their status as victim. It is only when potential status givers are aware of the victims' existence that the victim status can be granted. It is argued that, to grasp international media attention, particular attributes of a conflict should also be present: the conflict should be comprehensible, have a unique selling point, have a limited time span and be well-'timed'. Whether such media attention materializes in actions by international politicians or private humanitarian organizations depends on domestic policies, geopolitical interests, accessibility to the region and the possibility of donors identifying with the victims.

Making sense of policing identities: the ‘deserving’ and the ‘undeserving’ in policing accounts of victimisation

“…The 'ideal victim', according to Christie, must be powerful enough to make their case known and of being able to be convincing of their status as a victim (1986). However, Christie is ambiguous about who is in a position to grant this status (van Wijk, 2013). The difficulty in this regard is that the 'undeserving' victim has no power over this labelling process and victim status is not always intrinsic to the act.…”

Footballer, rich man, celebrity, consumer: Media blindness and the denial of domestic abuse in the Stephanie Ward and Danny Simpson case

“…Very few of the articles expanded upon this, simply reprinting the statement, referring to it as 'her stunning defence of the Premier League footballer' (Wareing, 2015) and leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions. As such, her actions lacked explanation and context -particularly in relation to evidence that many victims adopt rational and justified strategies for keeping safe that contradict wider expectations of what the 'perfect victim' looks like (Monckton-Smith et al, 2014;Pain, 2014;Van Wijk, 2013). One of the few exceptions to this rule was an article authored by the Chief Executive of Women's Aid, which contextualized Ward's behaviour as common amongst abuse victims and explained why they often decided not to give testimony in court (Neate, 2015).…”

Nils Christie: On the periphery but in the centre

“…Interestingly, van Wijk (2013) has tested the utility of the notion of the 'ideal victim' for international crimes and sensitises us to a very similar issue. Van Wijk argues that a similar process of recog-nition is evident before victims of international crimes are acknowledged and responded to (van Wijk, 2013). Thus, he posits that, in order for these victims to achieve victim status, certain conditions need to be met: the conflict must not be complex, must be unique, must be short, and must be well-timed with the role of the media being particularly pertinent to understanding its successful acquisition.…”