Introduction

Ideal victims and real victims represent two very different groups. One is rooted in social stereotypes and falsehoods, holding a ‘hero like public status’, while the other, as the name would suggest, is what one finds in the real world. Real victims are more often young than old, more often men than women, more often known to their offender than not, and more often engaged in not entirely virtuous activities when victimised. In an ideal world, this would not affect the care and support received following victimisation, or the recognition of the harm and suffering that has been inflicted. Sadly, though, in our imperfect world, deviations from the fictional ideal may result in blaming, derogation, cruelty and injustice.

It is safe to say that most ‘real’ victims of crime would find it extremely difficult to meet the ideal victim requirements; thereby, they default into the category of the non-ideal. This chapter will first review Christie's discussion of the two types of non-ideal victim that he identifies: witches and workers. It will then go on to discuss how the expanded concept of the non-ideal victim now includes those who are deprived of the recognition of the harm done to them, potentially leading to further hardship and secondary victimisation. This chapter explores another category of non-ideal victim: the ‘victim’ who refuses this label and distances themselves from the identity. A brief review of survey-based research around this category of victim motivates a more qualitative exploration of victim identity and labels. Findings from qualitative research will be presented to support the suggestion that (some) victims have strong adverse feelings to the word ‘victim’ and actively work to avoid any association with it. Finally, a discussion of how social-psychological theory might help to explain the phenomenon provides new insight into this under-researched group of non-ideal victims.

Christie's (non-)ideal

In his relatively brief discussion of the non-ideal victim, Christie gives two examples of who might fall into such a category. The first example is of the medieval witch whose ‘torture was a matter of course and their burning a part of the public entertainment’ (Christie, 1986: 22). Why are witches non-ideal? The answer, Christie suggests, is because they had power.