Young victims’ positioning: Narrations of victimhood and support
| DOI | 10.1177/0269758019854950 |
| Author | Sara Thunberg,Kjerstin Andersson Bruck |
| Date | 01 May 2020 |
| Published date | 01 May 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Young victims’ positioning:
Narrations of victimhood
and support
Sara Thunberg
O
¨rebro University, Sweden
Kjerstin Andersson Bruck
O
¨rebro University, Sweden
Abstract
The present study aims to analyze how young people narratively negotiate their position as victims,
how their social surroundings react to their victim positioning and what types of support they are
offered. It is argued that those who position themselves as innocent victims receive support, while
those who do not position themselves as such are left to fend for themselves. It is concluded that
receiving support functions as a way for young victims to keep intact their narratives of who they
are; while young people who did not receive support and acceptance for their positioning needed
to re-negotiate their narrative to make sense of who they are after the victimization. Thereby, the
victimizing event was incorporated into their narrative identity.
Keywords
Young people, youth, positioning, identity, support, victim
Introduction
Young people, particularly young males, are the group most likely to become both perpetrators and
victims of crime (Dodsley, 2017; Furlong and Cartmel, 2007; Hopkins Burke, 2016; Muncie,
2015). Being the victim of a crime might result in a need for support and make one eligible to
receive support from the community (e.g. professional support or family and friends), especially
when it happens to young victims. However, becoming a crime victim and being offered support
are not unproblematic. The term ‘victim’ can have several different meanings depending on the
context, and includes a vast number of experiences from insignificant to life-changing events. The
Corresponding author:
Sara Thunberg, School of Law, Psychology and Social Work, O
¨rebro University, 701 82 O
¨rebro, Sweden.
Email: sara.thunberg@oru.se
International Review of Victimology
2020, Vol. 26(2) 196–211
ªThe Author(s) 2019
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/0269758019854950
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legal definition of victimhood, which depends on establishing a consensus that a crime has taken
place, differs from a narrative definition of what being a victim entails. Narrativity is an ontolo-
gical condition of human existence (Somers, 1994) that interweaves people’s life experiences with
their social contexts, negotiations of values, ethical dilemmas, perceptions and aspirations (Saar-
ikkoma¨ki, 2016) to construct a narrative identity – a story of who-I-am. Narrating victimhood
therefore necessitates incorporating the story of the victimizing event into the story of who-I-am,
past, present and future. It also means that an event that, from a legal standpoint, can be seen as a
minor offence, can in fact be narratively life-changing. The narrative might have to include re-
negotiation of relationships to others and restoration of a sense of trust in the community, as well as
the re-establishment of a moral self (Crossley, 2000; Fleetwood, 2016; Somers, 1994). The present
study focuses on the latter of these two definitions: the victim narrativity of young people; thereby,
the crime itself is of lesser importance than how narrativity is constructed in relation to the crime.
In mundane language, the word ‘victim’ often has negative connotations of being weak and
passive, and victims are sometimes even blamed for the victimizing event (Van Dijk, 2009). The
notion of the ideal victim (Christie, 2001) is widely criticized within the research community as
being stereotypical and as not representative of a complex set of victimizing experiences (e.g.
Pemberton et al., 2018a, 2018b; Van Dijk, 2009; Walklate, 2011; Walklate et al., 2018). Van Dijk
(2009) argues that the term ‘victim’ derives from an understanding in Western languages of
victims as religious sacrifices. The modern discourse of victimhood still builds on the notion that,
among other things, victims must sacrifice their right to revenge on their assailant by transferring
that right to the state via the court system (Van Dijk, 2009). The discourse of victims and victim-
hood affects how people narrate their victimization, which in turn may affect whether and what
type of community support they are offered by society (cf. Fohring, 2012, 2015; Ja¨gervi, 2016).
In a Swedish context, crime victims’ right to support after victimization is regulated in the social
services legislation, and children and young people are given specific attention as needing support
to handle the victimization (see Ljungwald, 2011). Despite their legal right to support, if victims
are not able to negotiate and accomplish a victim position, their victimhood may not be deemed
legitimate (cf. Christie, 2001; Walklate, 2011), and community support may fail to be provided or
be unsuccessful (Ja¨gervi, 2016). Children and young people are unders tood to be particularly
vulnerable (Christensen, 2000; Meyer, 2007). Young people are supposed to become increasingly
independent from and detach themselves from parents, resulting in the youth period often being
described as stressful in itself, affecting young people’s well-being (e.g. Bynner, 2005; Geldard
et al., 2016). These aspects affect young people’s construction of their narrativity (Eckersley,
2011). Children and young people exposed to violence are believed to develop into maladjusted
and possibly violent adults (Andersson and Cater, 2014), and therefore are in need of support in
order to correct a potentially problematic course of development. A body of literature has also
shown the consequences of victimization before the age of 18 to include anxiety, depression, post-
traumatic stress and lacking school achievements (Banyard and Cross, 2008; Cater et al., 2014;
Thunberg and Ka¨llstro¨m, 2018). Hence, being victimized during youth can have serious conse-
quences both in the short and long term, as it might disrupt the development of independence,
mental health and narrativity, calling for a need for support.
Additionally, previous research has shown how victims of different types of crimes themselves
understand their victimization and construct a victim narrative (cf. A
˚kerstro¨m et al., 2011; Burcar,
2005; Burcar and A
˚kerstro¨m, 2009; Fohring, 2018; Ja¨gervi, 2014, 2016; Lo¨fstrand, 2009a, 2009b).
However, young people’s narrative constructions of victimhood, in relation to their need for
community support, have not yet been explored in detail. Therefore, the aim of the present study
Thunberg and Bruck 197
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