Victims as Actors of Social Control: An Empirical Inquiry in France and Some Implications

Abstract

This article presents some preliminary results of the first French national victimization survey. Investigations into victimization are mainly used in France to determine the social profile of victims, as well as their behaviour and attitudes. The survey was implemented in two phases: a screening question on a national sample of 11,000, followed in the second phase by 1,049 victims answering a detailed questionnaire on their attitudes and behaviour. Besides ordinary property and personal offences, family violence and offences related to consumption and business life were included. For each of those types of victimization, the authors detail the specific socio-demographic characteristics of victims in order to compare these profiles. Finally they present data on the consequences of victimization and on the different resources to which victims turn. These results are used to document a discussion on criminal policy issues; in particular, passivity of the police confronted with individual complaints against unidentified offenders; and the considerable transformations in the protection of private property, which blur the traditional borders between state and private sectors.