91191 - Power Relations And Victimization Processes

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to provide an advanced and critical overview of the role of victims of crime, abuse of power, social exclusion and repression in contemporary society with regards to the main theoretical approaches in the discipline as a reflection of the changing of structure dynamics and relations at all levels. At the end of the course students will be able to: analyze processes of victimization in contemporary societies in a broader political and socio-economic context; set the peculiar condition of victims in the frame of multiple interactions with regards to national and supra national Institutions; recognize the ambivalence of victims’ role inside the judiciary and criminal justice systems in a comparative perspective; apply the “new” victimology of human rights in an original and interdisciplinary approach that transcends current official and social perspectives of victimization and its sources.

Course contents

The aim of the course is to provide an advanced and critical overview and understanding of the role of victims of crime and abuse of power, social exclusion and repression in contemporary society with regards to the main theoretical approaches in the discipline as a reflection of the changing of structure dynamics and relations at all level in the "global era".

Readings/Bibliography

1) P. Davis, P. Francis and C. Greer, Victims, Crime and Society, SAGE Publications Ltd., London, 2012.

2) R. Letschert, J. Van Dijk, The New Faces of Victimhood. Globalization, Transnational Crimes and Victim Rights, Springer, Dordrecht, 2012 - In particular, see: Part I: Chapters 1, 2, 3; Part II: Chapters 4,5; Part IV: Chapter 12; Part V: Chapter 13.

3) J. Van Dijk, "Free the Victim: A Critique of the Western Conception of Victimhood", International Review of Victimology May 2009, vol. 16, no.1, on the website:  https:// pure.uvt.nl/ws/files/1122557/Dijk_Free_the_victim_091002.pdf

4) N. Christie, "Victim movements at a crossroad", . Punishment & Society April 2010, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 115-122, on the website: http://pun.sagepub.com/content/12/2/115

5) Report of the Special Adviser J. Milquet - European Commission, Strengthening Victims' Rights; from Compensation to Reparation. For a new EU Victims' rights strategy 2020-2025, March 2019, on the website: https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/strengthening_victims_rights_-_from_compensation_to_reparation_rev.pdf

 

Teaching methods

Lessons and lectures in the classroom, with the active and direct partecipation of students (for example presentation and discussion of papers on specific topics). With regards to this last opportunity, further information would be given to students at the beginning of the course.

Assessment methods

Oral examination. For students attending the course, there will be also en evaluation of the papers presented and discussed in the classroom.

Teaching tools

Power point slides, articles given by the teacher during the lessons, vision in the classroom of films.

Links to further information

https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/susanna.vezzadini/

Office hours

See the website of Susanna Vezzadini