Synopses & Reviews
Victimization varies across the population. Selected characteristics of some individuals and groups make them more vulnerable to crime than others. This is the first reader to focus on the most vulnerable among us. Based in science and free of statistical jargon, this collection goes beyond cursory explanations to examine victimization experiences among members of uniquely susceptible crime targets. Such groups include: homeless women; pregnant drug addicts; inmates with H.I.V.; international students; residents of developing nations; and non-human animals.
Coston identifies twenty-five sub-groups and uses a multi-disciplinary approach to provide readers with important background information, an outline of fundamental issues, and a variety of particular germinal ideas. Contributors present a well-rounded view of the nature of the problems faced by each group, including critiques of past and current initiatives and suggestions for practical policy strategies.
Review
This is a fantastic book that addresses a number of stigmatized and, unfortunately, too often victimized groups. The book notably includes a handful of articles highlighting groups that have had their fair share of "journal time" (albeit not as much as warranted), such as minorities and the elderly. However, the volume also includes articles on such unseen and unwritten-about victim groups as international students, citizens of underdeveloped countries, and nonhuman animals....Coston definitely succeeds in bringing together stories of a variety of vulnerable individuals and demonstrating the need for more research in all victimology areas.Criminal Justice Review
Synopsis
Victimization varies across the population. Selected characteristics of some individuals and groups make them more vulnerable to crime than others. This is the first reader to focus on the most vulnerable among us. Based in science and free of statistical jargon, this collection goes beyond cursory explanations to examine victimization experiences among members of uniquely susceptible crime targets. Such groups include: homeless women; pregnant drug addicts; inmates with H.I.V.; international students; residents of developing nations; and non-human animals. Coston identifies twenty-five sub-groups and uses a multi-disciplinary approach to provide readers with important background information, an outline of fundamental issues, and a variety of particular germinal ideas. Contributors present a well-rounded view of the nature of the problems faced by each group, including critiques of past and current initiatives and suggestions for practical policy strategies.
Synopsis
Examines particular demographics that are susceptible as targets of crime.
About the Author
CHARISSE TIA MARIA COSTON is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She received her Ph.D. from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She sits on the editorial boards of Criminology and Public Policy, American Journal of Criminal Justice, Creative Sociology, and The Journal of Critical Criminology. She has published a number of articles in journals such as The Victimologist, Deviant Behavior; and The International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, along with book chapters and numerous book reviews.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
About the Contributors
Foreward by Freda Adler
Introduction
Multipli-Disadvantaged Groups
Fear of Crime among Vulnerable Populations: Homeless Women by Charisse T. M. Coston and James O. Finckenauer
Worries about Crime: Rank-Ordering Survival Concerns among Urban Transient Females by Charisse T. M. Coston
Personal and Situational Characteristics of Custodial African American Grandmothers by Dorothy Ruiz, Carolyn Zhu, and Martha Crowder
Sexual Ecology: Aids in the Black Community by Leon E. Pettiway
The Persecution and Ill-Treatment of African Americans in the Healthcare System in the United States by Robert L. Bing III
Exploiting the Aged in a Familial Setting by Anita Neuberger-Blowers
Fear of Crime: It's Meaning in the Lives of Elderly Women by Kate Hanrahan and John J. Gibbs
"Where are we now Cesar Chavez?": The Unique Vulnerabilities and Victimization Experiences of Mexican Immigrants in the United States by David A. Jenks and Catherine A. Jenks
The Undeserving Vulnerable
The Intersecting Identities of Being Black,Female, Crack-Addicted, and Pregnant: Vunerabilities, Victimization Experiencees, and Criminalization by Paula K. Rector and Nancy Wonders
Disregarding Harm: An Examination of the Vulnerabilities of Youth Incarcerated in Adult Correctional Facilities by Pauline K. Brennan
Criminal Victimization of Prostitutes: Empirical Support for the Lifestyle/Exposure Model by Charisse T. M. Coston and Lee E. Ross
AIDS, Violence and Matters of Respect: Family and Peer Relations of African-American and Latino Convicted Felons by Laura T. Fishman
The Uniquely, Uniquely Vulnerable
Fear of Crime among Foreign Students in the United States by Charisse T. M. Coston
Victims in Underdeveloped Countries by Diane C. Bates and Joanne Ardovini-Brooker
Low Crime Rates in Bahrain: Islamic Social Control-Testing the Theory of Synnomie by Charisse T. M. Coston and Adel A. Helal
The Teacher, Actor even the Candlestick Maker, Victims All-A Look At Government Sanctioned Victimizatioin during the Red Scare of the 1950s by Babette M. Protz
Non-Human Animals as Victims: Victimology and the Animal Rights Movement by Bonnie Berry
The Exploitation, Victimization, and Unique Vulnerablitites of Native Americans by Courtney C. Petersen
Removal of Southwest Michigan Potawatomi: Governmental Drimes of Oppression and Cultural Genocide by Linda M. Robyn
The Victimization of Women: A Theoretical Perspective on Dowry Deaths in India by Mangai Natarajan
Victims of Airport Screener Assaults: Terrorism and U. S. Capitalism at Work by Bonnie Berry
The Differentially-Vulnerable
Social Distance and Vulnerability: The Case of Sexual Orientation by Garofalo and Bryant
The Perilous Existence of Children in Circuses, Carnivals, and Freak Shows by Amit R. Patel
Discredited Victims of Childhood Violence by Harold Pepinsky
Anti-Abortion Stalkers by Charlotte A. Dudley