50 Years of victimology. How do victims fit into the criminological picture presented in Criminologie?
From its first issue, Criminologie has included articles on the victims of crime, confirming that victimology developed out of the criminological sciences, at least in the French-speaking community. At Criminologie’s 50th anniversary, it’s time for a review: has the research community come to see victimology as a more legitimate field of study since 1968? Criminologie has published 89 articles about victims or victimizations. Analysis shows that some of the major themes in victimology have played an important role in the journal, and most of these are representative of both the historical context and the evolution of the victim advocacy movement in Canada and in Quebec as well as internationally. However, there seems to be no over-riding concern for or priority given to particular approaches and some of the main areas in the field are neglected or under-represented. However, even given this constraint, it seems possible to see links between the way in which victimology has been addressed in Criminologie and the way it is seen in research in criminology in general.