Edinburgh Napier University

  In The Ideal Victim, Christie naturally focuses on characterising the Ideal victim and the sociology of the phenomena. Alternatively, in this chapter, I will focus instead on the non-ideal victim and how this sub-group of victims is linked to individual reactions to victimisation.
Christie’s discussion of the non-ideal victim goes only so far as ‘witches and workers’ – those victims who are made so due to either their ill health or ignorance of their victimisation, who do not have sufficient strength/power to claim legitimate victim status. He does not however consider the individual who does not want to be associated with the victim label, and will in fact go to great lengths to avoid victim status, including not reporting crimes to the police or further engaging with criminal justice.
The generally negative societal reaction to victims plays a major role in the decision to seek recognition, with victim blaming, derogation, and cross examination, all understandably issues many victims may want to avoid. On an individual level though, avoiding victim status may help avoid longer term trauma and psychological distress. This is explained via social psychological theory and cognitive processing – the idea that in order to go about our daily lives we need to hold a number of fundamental (though not necessarily accurate) beliefs about ourselves and the world. Criminal victimisation acts as a significant challenge to these beliefs, thereby creating the opportunity for considerable psychological distress. Avoiding victimisation, or at least avoiding the victim identity and label, is thereby potentially an effective means of protecting one’s foundational belief systems and maintaining personal wellbeing.