Rethinking Victimization: An Interactional Approach to Victimology

This article suggests an interactional approach for analyzing victimization–that is, the social processes through which person come to be known and understood as victims. The authors conceptualize victimization in terms of interactional and descriptive practices through which victim status is assigned to persons and/or groups. Using data from the public media and fieldwork in everyday settings, the authors illustrate some techniques, objectives, and outcomes of victimization. The authors conclude by recommending several issues and directions for study that would be appropriate for victimological research that construes victims as interactionally constituted.