Introduction
Victimology is a comparatively new field of study that includes the emotional or physical assaults of the victim. At present, there are three distinct forms of study or Ideological tendencies of Victimology in the discipline. They are conservative tendency, liberal tendency, and radical tendency. This paper would evaluate each tendency and understand the best possible one (or a combination thereof) for the discipline.
Conservative tendency
Per the Conservative tendency, it is believed that criminal activities are acts by the citizens themselves. It assumes that the street crimes, like assault, robbery, rape, or murder, that are committed are the deed by the members of the society and to prevent these criminal activities it is essential for the citizens to understand the goodness of being a good citizen and a citizen must avoid situations that could potentially result in trouble, like taking a walk in the park in the middle of the night. (Karmen, 2007)
Advantage
The advantage of this theory is that it includes all the members of the society and thus it regards all the population can be regarded as potential victims of criminals. This makes it possible for the criminal justice system to include all members of the society under suspicion. As the criminal is a part of society, it is impossible to leave out the criminal so a citizen should always be ready for any potential criminal activity.
Disadvantage
The greatest disadvantage of this tendency is that it is applicable for crimes that are regarded as street crimes. It cannot be applied to white-collar crimes where an only section of the society is generally involved.
Liberal tendency
Liberal tendency includes both white-collar crime and street crimes. It also suggests that the government should be held responsible for all criminal activities and the government should be more supportive towards the goodwill of the victim.
Advantage
This tendency involves the government and insists the authorities be more responsible and more active in social matters. This makes the parameters of the authority spread over all quarters of society.
Disadvantage
However, the Liberal tendency makes the members of the society completely free of any responsibility as the authorities are deemed to be conscientious of all the damage control needed. Thus, in a way, it makes the citizens less accountable.
Radical tendency
The Radical tendency is a formulation of both the above ideologies. However, it tends to cover every victim of all sufferings. It not only involves white-collar crimes and street crimes, it includes victims of pollution or global warming or religious differences too.
Advantage
The best element of this ideology is that it tends to cover all members of humanity and thus this philosophy is more humane than any other ideology. It is a global ideology and following it successfully would solve all sufferings in the world.
Disadvantage
However, the perspective of this ideology is too large and it is hardly possible to resolve all the issues at the same time. It is more theoretical and philosophical than practical usage. (Karmen, 2007)
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is clear that a combination of Conservative tendency and Liberal tendency would be more practicable and useful for society. It should be noted that only those ideologies are considered useful which could be materialistically affordable and implemented in the day-to-day system. A combination of the two tendencies would cover most of the population where it would be possible to maintain an adequate emphasis on each section.
References
Karmen, A. (2007). Crime victims: An introduction to victimology (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing.