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Completely Innocent Victim

Definition

Mendelsohn's first category: a victim selected by chance or by an offender's premeditation, with no contribution from the victim's own conduct, such as a child or a person attacked at random.

Related terms

Intimate Partner Victimisation
Violence or abuse committed by a current or former spouse, partner or dating partner, a relationship category with markedly lower reporting rates...
Provocative Victim
A victim whose own conduct, such as an insult, a threat or a first strike, triggered the offender's response; positioned midway along...
Strangers vs Acquaintances
The relationship-distance axis used across victimology and criminal justice statistics to separate offences between people who did not know each other from...
Victim Blaming
Attributing moral responsibility for a crime to the victim's character or conduct rather than to the offender's decision to act, a normative...
Victim Precipitation
The discredited idea, associated with Von Hentig and Mendelsohn, that victims bear some responsibility for their own victimisation through their behaviour or...

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