INTERVICT

Background information

Victimology is a relatively young branch of academic research. Its objective is to gain knowledge on victims of crime and abuse of power. Victimology has from its inception adopted an interdisciplinary approach to its subject matter. Contributions are being made by experts from fields as diverse as academic lawyers, criminologists, clinical and social psychologists, psychiatrists, political scientists and economists. Victimology also maintains a strikingly international profile. Despite its relatively brief tradition of some 50 years, it is well established and has been acknowledged as a special and identifiable area of academic research. There are specialised international (refereed) journals for victimology; there is a World Society of Victimology and there are a number of regional and national Societies of Victimology comprising many hundreds of researchers active in this field.

INTERVICT aims to develop and implement a large scale interdisciplinary research programme in order to make significant contributions to the body of international victimological knowledge. The interdisciplinary approach of the research programme ensures that proper research is performed into all aspects of victimization, which will ultimately contribute to preventing or reducing instances of criminal victimization across the world and to limiting the effects of such victimization on victims and their families including economic costs, pain and suffering.