Q. How do we relate theoretical perspectives to the autobiography and what is the difference between concepts and theoretical perspectives in relation to victimology?
A. In brief, theoretical perspectives are ways of seeing and conceptualising the social world in particular ways; concepts are those things that we use to analyse the social world from the given perspectives that we take. Within your assessment, each autobiography will be different and therefore raise and identify different experiences that can be understood with reference to a variety of different contexts. My advice is to identify what the key issues within the autobiography are (perhaps using the methodological approach to autobiography suggested and discussed in week 9) and then review the theoretical perspectives covered throughout the module to see which would assist in conceptualising and understanding these experiences
. Each theoretical perspective offers quite different ways of critically questioning the experience of victimization or survival that you are reading for your assessment. Some narrow the focus of who and what can be understood as victims and victimization in individualizing terms (i.e. positivist, week 1 and 2), others seek to question structure (i.e. criminal justice processes) and agency (i.e. the lived experience of negotiating structure), and critically assess the provision of ‘needs’ and ascription of identity politics within victim policy (i.e. feminist and critical, weeks 3-5). Different perspectives look to broaden the scope of who victims and victimizes are to consider human rights, victim movements, collective victimization and state-corporate actors as victimizes (i.e. radical, weeks 6-7), or seek to question the role and place of particular forms of ‘victim hood’ within public and political life (i.e. ‘cultural’, weeks 8-10). The theory and concepts that you then use within such perspectives (for example, ‘ideal victim’, victim hierarchies, gender politics, deserving and underserving victim status, non-victim, victim allocation, structurally neutral victims, structural vulnerability, labeling, etc.) can then be used to critically analyse your chosen autobiography. To repeat however, do not attempt to cover everything from the module.
Q. When evaluating the use of personal testimony for victimology, would it be useful to compare it to other accounts of the same event such as documentary programmes or news report?
A. You need to ensure that you are using the personal testimony under discussion as the leading textual data and evidence for your analysis. However, it may well be the case that the experience of victimization/harm/survival you are writing about has corroborating information across other media (i.e. news, documentaries, etc.). This is fine to use at various points in your essay, either to inform a comment on the uses of personal testimony for victimology, or to provide an insight into the wider historical, contextual and policy issues within which the personal testimony was written and the harm experienced. This type of information might also provide an update on the events, legal case, policy developments, etc. since the personal testimony was written. I would, however, use this information selectively, sparingly (in comparison to academic research and literature), and ensure it is derived from credible sources, particularly if drawn from the internet.
Q. What is meant by ‘structural issues’?
A. As critical social scientists we talk about and make reference to structural issues frequently. For example, these can include matters relating to core critical issues such as ‘race’, gender, class, etc., in addition to critical issues found within institutions (such as the criminal justice system, healthcare, education, etc.), politics or policy that may exacerbate inequalities, cause issues of social injustice, require further investigation, or impact on the everyday lives of people. In relation to this assessment, each autobiography will be situated within, and/or impacted by, structural issues which are likely to offer you further points of interest to raise and discuss in your essay.
Description
This assessment requires you to choose any published written autobiography of someone who has experienced victimisation, harm or survival of some sort and expose it to evaluation and further insight.
You will be asked to critically assess your chosen text with regards to the most relevant theoretical, policy-related, and/or methodological debates discussed throughout the module.
autobiography -Yousafzai, M. and Lamb, C. (2013).
