Book review: Handbook of Victims and Victimology
| Author | Carina Gallo |
| Published date | 01 September 2018 |
| Date | 01 September 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0269758018769684 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Book reviews
Sandra Walklate (ed.)
Handbook of Victims and Victimology, 2nd edition.
Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2017, 394p.; ISBN 9781138889453 (hardback)
Reviewed by: Carina Gallo, San Francisco State University, USA
DOI: 10.1177/0269758018769684
Over the last decades, victimology has grown into an established academic discipline.
Despite a relatively thorough body of literature, there are still many questions to be
answered. In this second edition of the Handbook of Victims and Victimology, Sandra
Walklate, one of the leading scholars in the field, brings together an updated set of essays
exploringavarietyofissuesrelatedtocrimevictimization. The nearly 400-page handbook
reveals and challenges our underlying assumptions about victims and crime. What constitutes
a victim, what do victims need, and perhaps most importantly, who has the power to define
these needs?
The handbook is divided into five parts with 19 chapters. Walklate opens the handbook
with an introduction that sets the stage for subsequent chapters and provides thought-
provoking introductions to each part. The contributors represent a combination of upcoming
and world-renowned scholars in law, sociology, criminology, victimology, and social work.
The revision of the first edition is rather substantial. The second edition includes many new
authors, and the remaining authors have updated their chapters. Part I traces the historical
context of victimology and its theoretical and conceptua l approaches. Part II offers one of the
most significant changes for the second edition by broadening its scope from feminism and
gender to other dimensions of victimization, such as age, race, sexuality, ethnicity, and
intersectionality. Victim policy and services delivery is still the spotlight of attention in Part
III, but all authors except one are new. Part IV centers on global and comparative trends in
policy responses. Part V encourages us to think deeply about constructions of crime and
victims by digging into areas that mainstream victimological research often neglects, such
as corporate crime victimization. Walklate concludes the handbook by setting an agenda for
the future direction of victimology.
The real draw of the handbook is its critical approach. To Walklate the term ‘critical’ means
excavating ‘the appearance of “things” in terms of their underlying generative mechanisms’ and
considering ‘the socio-economic and historical context in which events occur’ (p. 380). Walklate
has long called for more qualitative and comparative work that acknowledges the complexities that
lie behind victimization. The handbook also raises a thoughtful an d well-deserved critique of
conventional victimology and points to its profound and often overlooked theoretical, conceptual,
and methodological problems. Victimology can also cause harm. As Barry Godfrey argues in his
International Review of Victimology
2018, Vol. 24(3) 367–369
ªThe Author(s) 2018
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