In the shadow of Christ ? On the use of the word “victim” for those affected by crime

Abstract

I am not a simply because other people say I am. Other people cannot make you a victim, only you can do that ... I want to be taken seriously and for the events of my case not to be swept under the doormat. --Natasha Kampusch (1) Introductory Remarks When pressed, English speakers are inclined to suppose that the word victim is derived from the Latin verb vincere, which means to conquer. In this mistaken interpretation victim refers to the opposite of the victor: he who lost the battle (the loser). In reality, victim is not a derivative of the verb vincere but of the unrelated Latin word for sacrificial object, victima. Victim is, for example, used in Latin versions of the Bible to denote a sacrificial animal. The is someone or something slaughtered and offered as a sacrifice to the gods. In June 20071 heard George Fletcher speaking about the etymology of victim at a seminar on victimology and human rights held at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He discussed the original meaning of the word and the universality of the label as a name for those affected by crime in the languages of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. In modern Hebrew, the word used for is korban, originally meaning both the sacrifice and the sacrificial animal. In Arabic, the word for victims of crime or terrorism, udhiya, also refers to both the sacrifice and the sacrificial animal. The same root concept is used in the name of the important Islamic Holiday of the Sacrifice. (2) Fletcher also presented a tentative explanation about how the victima concept was adopted into the Abrahamic languages. This explanation is discussed in more detail in his recent study, The Grammar of Criminal Law, in his chapter on language. (3) In the following essay I will comment on Fletcher's explanation for the use of the word victim and compare it with my own hypothesis elaborated in a public lecture at the University of Tilburg, the Netherlands, around the same time. (4) In a final section, I will briefly discuss the implications of these etymological analyses for a better understanding of the role of the in criminal procedure, another topic raised in Fletcher's book. As Fletcher rightly points out, victima is used to denote those harmed by crime not only in English but in all Romance languages, such as French and Italian (victime and vittima, respectively). The sacrificial connotations of victim may be hidden for most native speakers of English, French, or Italian, but this is not the case in Germanic languages. In German, for instance, the is called Das Opfer, meaning the sacrifice; and in Swedish, Brottsoffer, the sacrifice of the crime. In Icelandic the word used for is Foernarlamb, meaning the sacrificial lamb. In Dutch the word is slachtoffer. The Dutch term means, literally, the butchered, sacrificial object. The identification of crime victims with sacrificial objects is not limited to English, Romance, or Germanic languages. In Russian (zherta), Hungarian (aldozot), and modern Greek (tema), to name just a few, crime victims are also referred to as sacrificial objects. A brief etymological excursion therefore confirms that the word used for those affected by crime refers in all European languages to animals killed in a religious ritual as part of the worship of god. Victim is replete with deep religious meaning in all these languages. The similar adoption of the label across all these different languages is the more puzzling since it seems to be a characteristic of modern versions of these languages. In classical Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, the wider use of the label for those affected by crime is non-existent. In the ancient world, nobody called a crime a sacrificial object. Neither is the label common among other language groups. In Chinese, the word for sacrificial animal (jipi) is definitely not used for those persons affected by crime. …