Victimization and Race

Victimization and Race

Introduction

Victimization is a term of art in the disciplines of criminology, psychology and the social sciences. Its use in the social sciences is not defined in detail. In most cases, the word is used in conjunction with structural discrimination, that is, it describes the process of attribution of a victim to individual members or groups of society, mostly by members of dominant social groups, institutions or ideologies. People experiencing violence as discrimination, abuse, racism or war are the victims. Victimology is a sub-discipline of criminology and addresses both the victimization and the resulting reactions and with their process-like conditions. The interaction between victims and offenders, and between victims and social control institutions (justice), social environment and facilities are the focus of victimology. In psychology, the term used is secondary victimization which refers to the reactions (apathy, negative statements, moral accusations, etc.) of the social environment of the victim. The repeated encounter with the perpetrator may lead to secondary victimization.

Description of Topic

Racism is an omnipresent and insidious occurrence which is transformed through numerous levels of historical, heritage, social and context to have a great influence on lives of the humans. The customary delineation of racism as simply prejudice based on rush does not cover the vast variety of ways in which this occurrence is manifested (Cole & Smith, 2007). Racism is indicated not only by biased demeanor, but also by structural relationships, institutional practices, and political ideologies, all of which are often examined as a normative component of our civilization. People in power have always divide the masses in such a way so that they disagree with each other on trivial and unimportant matters which unable them to unite and make any substantial difference for their rights or for the equal distribtution of wealth. In this way, rich and wealthy people remain wealthy and poor remain poor (Free, 2003). For the poor people and for working class racism and ethnic difference is like a disease and it is impossible and to cure this disease. It is because of this diseaese people remain indulge in the difference rather than observing similar factors to unite.

Literature Review

Racism has become a norm of life for the minorities living in the United States. While, people talk about the issue frequently, there is less to be said about the root causes of this act. The exercise of racism actually runs because the law enforcement authorities have failed to produce successful policies for the war against drugs and the war against terrorism. A well known civil liberties' organization “American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)” supports the argument that racism is a form of oppression and is taking various positive measures in stopping this crime (Matthews, 2005). The laws, the state laws and the federal laws have variety of hate crimes. In 1964, a Civil Rights Act was passed that makes the discrimination against someone due to his/her religion, nationality, race, disability, ethnicity, or sexual orientation a crime. There has been improvement from time to time in ...