Victimology and victim compensation

In short

Victimology is the scientific study of the victim of crime - who gets victimised, why, what the crime costs them, and what the state owes them in treatment, protection and money. It grew from a branch of criminology (Mendelsohn coined the term in 1947) into the legal basis for a victim's statutory rights, now carried in India by the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), which replaced the CrPC from 1 July 2024, read with the NALSA Compensation Scheme for Women Victims/Survivors of Sexual Assault and other Crimes, 2018. It is a guaranteed section in Criminology and Police Administration papers (typology questions, BNSS provisions, landmark cases) and is tested in interviews for police sub-inspector and probationary IPS boards, legal-aid and paralegal posts, Protection Officer and One Stop Centre jobs, NGO victim-support roles and CSR/compliance teams. Practically, it is the knowledge used every day by District Legal Services Authorities assessing compensation claims and by investigating officers who must inform, protect and refer a victim.

Explained

What victimology is, and how it developed

• Definition: the systematic study of victims - their relationship with offenders, their role in the criminal event, their experience of the justice system, and their need for compensation, services and rights.
• Benjamin Mendelsohn (1947) coined *victimologie*; Hans von Hentig (*The Criminal and His Victim*, 1948) first classified victims; Marvin Wolfgang (1958) measured victim-precipitated homicide in Philadelphia (about 26% of cases); Stephen Schafer (1968) framed functional responsibility; Ezzat Fattah developed the critical/interactionist strand.
• Three waves: (1) *penal/positivist* victimology - victim's share in causing the crime; (2) *general victimology* (Mendelsohn's later view) - victims of accident, disaster, abuse of power, not only crime; (3) *critical victimology* - how the state and media construct "ideal victims" (Nils Christie's ideal victim: weak, blameless, respectable, attacked by a stranger).
• International charter: the UN Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power, 1985 (A/RES/40/34) - four pillars: access to justice and fair treatment, restitution, compensation, and assistance. It defines victims to include the immediate family and dependants.
• Indian policy trail: Law Commission 42nd (1971) and 154th (1996) Reports on compensation; Malimath Committee on Reforms of the Criminal Justice System (2003) - victim's right to be heard, to legal representation and to compensation as a right; 226th Report (acid attacks); Justice J.S. Verma Committee (2013) after the Delhi gang rape.

Typologies and classifications (the most-asked exam block)

• Von Hentig's 13 classes of victim-prone persons: the young, the female, the old, the mentally defective/deranged, immigrants, minorities, dull normals, the depressed, the acquisitive, the wanton, the lonesome and heartbroken, the tormentor, the blocked/exempted/fighting victim.
• Mendelsohn's six-fold typology by culpability: (1) completely innocent (a child); (2) victim with minor guilt / through ignorance; (3) voluntary victim (consensual duel, suicide pact); (4) victim more guilty than offender (provoker); (5) most guilty victim (attacker killed in self-defence); (6) simulating or imaginary victim (false complaint).
• Schafer's functional responsibility (7 types): unrelated, provocative, precipitative, biologically weak, socially weak, self-victimising, political victim.
• Degrees of victimisation: primary (direct victim), secondary (family, witnesses, dependants), tertiary (the wider community - fear of crime, insecurity).
• Secondary victimisation: harm inflicted *by the system and society* after the crime - hostile questioning, delays, repeated court appearances, media exposure, victim-blaming, two-finger test type practices now prohibited.
• Other key concepts: victim-offender overlap (the same young males are often both), repeat and multiple victimisation, hot spots, dark figure of crime (unreported/unrecorded crime), just world hypothesis (belief that people get what they deserve - the root of victim blaming).
• Explanatory theories of victimisation: victim precipitation (active provocation / passive characteristics); lifestyle exposure (Hindelang, Gottfredson, Garofalo - risk follows routine activities and associations); routine activity theory (Cohen and Felson - motivated offender + suitable target + absence of a capable guardian); deviant place theory (risk comes from where you are, not what you do); structural-choice and critical models (poverty, caste, gender and migration status structure exposure).

Victim's rights under the BNSS, 2023 and allied laws

• "Victim" is defined in the BNSS definition clause (s.2(1)(y)) as a person who has suffered loss or injury caused by the act or omission charged, and includes the guardian or legal heir.
• Right to information: the police must inform the informant/victim of the progress of investigation within 90 days, including by electronic means; the victim gets a copy of the FIR free of cost, and (with the accused) the police report and documents at committal/charge stage.
• Right to be heard: no withdrawal from prosecution is permitted without giving the victim an opportunity of being heard (a BNSS addition); the informant's presence is obligatory at the hearing of a bail application in the aggravated rape offences against minors (the rule formerly in CrPC s.439(1A)).
• Right to free treatment: all hospitals, public and private, must give free first aid and medical treatment to victims of acid attack, rape and other specified offences and inform the police immediately (BNSS s.397, formerly CrPC 357C); refusal is itself an offence under the BNS (s.200).
• Right of appeal: the victim may appeal against an acquittal, a conviction for a lesser offence or inadequate compensation - the proviso carried forward from CrPC s.372.
• Protection: BNSS s.398 makes a Witness Protection Scheme mandatory for every State - this follows *Mahender Chawla v. Union of India* (2018), which approved the national Witness Protection Scheme, 2018 (three threat categories, Standing Committee chaired by the District Judge).
• Special procedures: statement of a rape survivor recorded at her residence by a woman officer, audio-video recording of the statement; in-camera trial; identity of the survivor not disclosed; child victims examined under POCSO safeguards; a woman magistrate for recording statements in specified sexual offences.
• Zero FIR and e-FIR are now statutory, which matters for victims who cannot reach the station of jurisdiction.

Compensation: the statutory architecture

• Court-ordered compensation out of fine / as a sentence (BNSS s.395, formerly CrPC 357): the court may apply the fine, or order payment even where no fine is imposed, towards prosecution costs, loss or injury, compensation to dependants in death cases, or to a bona fide purchaser of stolen property.
• Victim Compensation Scheme (BNSS s.396, formerly CrPC 357A, inserted 2009): every State, in coordination with the Centre, must run a fund-backed scheme. Key features:
  1. The court may recommend compensation where s.395 is inadequate or rehabilitation is needed;
  2. The DLSA/SLSA decides the quantum after enquiry - to be completed within two months;
  3. Compensation is payable even if the offender is not traced or identified and no trial takes place, on application to the DLSA/SLSA;
  4. Interim/immediate relief, including free first aid or medical benefit, may be ordered on the recommendation of the police or magistrate;
  5. Compensation may also follow an acquittal or discharge where the victim needs rehabilitation.
• Rape and acid-attack victims are entitled to compensation in addition to the fine payable to them under the BNS provisions for those offences (the rule formerly in CrPC s.357B).
• NALSA Compensation Scheme for Women Victims/Survivors of Sexual Assault and other Crimes, 2018 - drawn up on the direction of the Supreme Court in *Nipun Saxena v. Union of India* (2018) and adopted as the minimum floor by States; indicative schedule: loss of life ₹5-10 lakh; gang rape ₹5-10 lakh; rape ₹4-7 lakh; unnatural sexual assault ₹4-7 lakh; loss of foetus or of fertility ₹2-3 lakh; acid attack with disfigurement of face ₹7-8 lakh; burns above 50% ₹5-8 lakh. State schemes (Delhi, Maharashtra, Goa and others) may fix higher amounts, so always cite the State scheme in force.
• Funding: the Nirbhaya Fund (2013, Ministry of Finance, implemented through WCD) and the Central Victim Compensation Fund (CVCF, 2015) top up State victim compensation funds; States also credit fines and court-ordered recoveries.
• Special statutes:
  • POCSO Act, 2012 (s.33(8)) with POCSO Rules, 2020 (Rule 9): the Special Court may order interim compensation at any stage and final compensation, payable from the victim compensation fund, irrespective of conviction.
  • SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 with the 1995 Rules as amended in 2016: scheduled relief per offence (broadly ₹1 lakh to ₹8.25 lakh), paid in stages (FIR, charge sheet, conviction), plus travel, maintenance and rehabilitation.
  • Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (as amended 2019) s.161 with the Compensation of Victims of Hit and Run Motor Accidents Scheme, 2022: ₹2,00,000 for death and ₹50,000 for grievous hurt; regular claims go to the MACT under s.166 (fault) or s.164 (structured ₹5 lakh death / ₹2.5 lakh grievous, no-fault).
  • Probation of Offenders Act, 1958 (s.5): the court may order compensation and costs while releasing an offender on probation.
  • Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005: monetary relief and compensation orders by the Magistrate through the Protection Officer.
  • Plea bargaining under the BNSS requires the mutually satisfactory disposition to provide compensation to the victim.
• Constitutional compensation (public-law remedy): compensation under Articles 32/226 for violation of Article 21 - *Rudal Sah v. State of Bihar* (1983, illegal detention), *Bhim Singh v. State of J&K* (1985), *Nilabati Behera v. State of Orissa* (1993, custodial death, sovereign immunity no defence), *D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal* (1997, arrest guidelines plus compensation).
• Landmark compensation cases: *Delhi Domestic Working Women's Forum v. Union of India* (1995) - recommended a Criminal Injuries Compensation Board and legal assistance to rape survivors from the first police contact; *Ankush Shivaji Gaikwad v. State of Maharashtra* (2013) - courts must apply their mind to compensation in every judgment and record reasons if none is granted; *Laxmi v. Union of India* (2014) - acid sales regulated, minimum ₹3 lakh to acid-attack victims; *Suresh v. State of Haryana* (2015) - interim compensation is an obligation, not a favour.

Victim assistance, restorative justice and measurement

• Service machinery in India: One Stop Centres (Sakhi) for women facing violence, women helpline 181, ERSS 112, Childline 1098, Trauma and crisis intervention centres, Legal Services Authorities (free legal aid to every woman, child, SC/ST person and victim of trafficking under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987), Support Persons under POCSO, Protection Officers under the DV Act.
• Restorative justice: repairing harm rather than only punishing - victim-offender mediation, family group conferencing, community reparation boards, and victim impact statements. In India it appears through compounding of offences, plea bargaining, Lok Adalats, pre-litigation conciliation and the child-friendly, reformative scheme of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
• Measurement: India's main source is NCRB *Crime in India*, which records police-registered cases, not victim experience; there is no regular national crime-victimisation survey (unlike the US NCVS or the Crime Survey for England and Wales), so the dark figure for rape, domestic violence, caste atrocities and cyber fraud remains large. NFHS rounds are the closest national evidence on spousal violence and its very low reporting.
• Advantages of a compensation regime: restores the victim financially, reduces dependence on conviction, discharges the state's welfare duty, lowers private retaliation.
• Limitations in practice: low awareness, no automatic court recommendation, uneven State schedules and under-funded State funds, long DLSA delays, no recovery mechanism against insolvent offenders, compensation treated as charity rather than a right, and no statutory right of the victim to be represented by counsel of choice at trial.

Key points

• Victimology - scientific study of victims, their role in the crime, their treatment by the system and their entitlements.
• Mendelsohn (1947) - coined the term; six-fold typology graded by the victim's own culpability.
• Von Hentig (1948) - 13 victim-prone categories; Schafer (1968) - functional responsibility; Wolfgang (1958) - victim-precipitated homicide.
• UN Declaration 1985 - access to justice, restitution, compensation, assistance; victim includes family and dependants.
• Primary/secondary/tertiary victimisation - direct victim, family and witnesses, the community.
• Secondary victimisation - further harm by police, courts, media and society after the crime.
• Routine activity theory - motivated offender + suitable target + absent capable guardian; basis of situational crime prevention.
• Dark figure of crime - crime not reported or not recorded; why police statistics understate victimisation.
• BNSS s.395 (CrPC 357) - compensation ordered by the sentencing court, with or without a fine.
• BNSS s.396 (CrPC 357A) - State Victim Compensation Scheme; DLSA/SLSA decides within two months; payable even if the offender is untraced.
• BNSS s.397 (CrPC 357C) - free first aid and treatment by every hospital, public or private; refusal is an offence under the BNS.
• BNSS s.398 - every State must have a Witness Protection Scheme; follows *Mahender Chawla* (2018).
• 90-day rule - investigation progress must be told to the informant/victim, including electronically; victim heard before withdrawal of prosecution and before bail in grave offences.
• NALSA Scheme 2018 - minimum compensation floors (rape ₹4-7 lakh, gang rape and death ₹5-10 lakh); States may fix more.
• POCSO Rule 9 - interim and final compensation by the Special Court regardless of conviction.
• Hit-and-run solatium - ₹2,00,000 for death and ₹50,000 for grievous hurt under the 2022 Scheme (MV Act s.161).
• Constitutional tort - *Rudal Sah*, *Nilabati Behera*, *D.K. Basu*: compensation under Articles 32/226 for Article 21 violations.
• Ankush Shivaji Gaikwad (2013) - every criminal judgment must consider compensation and give reasons if refused.

Formulas and examples

Example 1 - victimisation rate. A district of population 24,00,000 reports 1,680 victimisations of hurt in a year. Rate = (1,680 / 24,00,000) × 1,00,000 = 70 per 1,00,000. If the female population is 11,50,000 and 460 of those victims were women, the female-specific rate = (460 / 11,50,000) × 1,00,000 = 40 per 1,00,000 - lower, but the exam point is that rates must always be computed on the population *at risk*, not the whole district.

Example 2 - repeat victimisation and the dark figure. A victimisation survey of 5,000 households finds 900 burglary victimisations suffered by 600 distinct households; the police recorded 315 burglaries.

• Prevalence = (600 / 5,000) × 100 = 12% of households.
• Concentration = 900 / 600 = 1.5 victimisations per victim - so 300 incidents are repeats.
• Reporting/recording rate = (315 / 900) × 100 = 35%; dark figure = 900 − 315 = 585 incidents (65%).

Example 3 - dependency compensation in a fatal road accident. Deceased aged 30, salaried, monthly income ₹30,000, survived by wife, mother and one child (3 dependants).

1. Future prospects (below 40, permanent job) = +40% → 30,000 × 1.40 = ₹42,000.
2. Personal expenses for 2-3 dependants = 1/3 → deduct ₹14,000 → ₹28,000 per month.
3. Annual dependency = 28,000 × 12 = ₹3,36,000.
4. Multiplier for age 26-30 (*Sarla Verma*) = 17 → 3,36,000 × 17 = ₹57,12,000.
5. Conventional heads = 15,000 + 40,000 + 15,000 = ₹70,000.

Total ≈ ₹57,82,000, plus interest from the date of the claim petition; the conventional heads are higher today because of the 10%-per-three-years escalation.

Example 4 - scheme compensation with set-off. A rape survivor's case: the trial court imposes a fine of ₹50,000 and directs it to be paid to her under BNSS s.395; the State scheme (following the NALSA 2018 floor) assesses her entitlement at ₹5,00,000; she had already drawn ₹1,00,000 as interim relief from the DLSA. Balance payable = 5,00,000 − 50,000 − 1,00,000 = ₹3,50,000 from the Victim Compensation Fund. Note that the fine-linked payment and the scheme amount are not cumulative in the sense of ignoring each other - s.396 compensation is granted where s.395 is inadequate, so amounts already received are adjusted; the fine under the BNS rape provision, however, is payable *in addition* to scheme compensation.

Example 5 - hit-and-run and untraced offender. A pedestrian is killed by an unidentified vehicle. The family claims under the Compensation of Victims of Hit and Run Motor Accidents Scheme, 2022 and receives ₹2,00,000 as solatium. Separately, since the offender is untraced, an application lies to the DLSA under BNSS s.396(4), which can award scheme compensation after a two-month enquiry; if the vehicle is later identified and insured, the MACT award under s.166 is computed as in Example 3 and the ₹2,00,000 already paid is adjusted against it.

Where it is used

• Police: investigating officers must give the free FIR copy, complete the 90-day progress intimation, arrange free medical treatment, record the s.396 interim-relief recommendation, and apply the Witness Protection Scheme - all are inspection and audit points for SHOs and for Police Station Visitor/Citizen charters.
• Legal Services Authorities: DLSA/SLSA paralegal volunteers, Retainer and Panel Lawyers and victim compensation enquiry officers assess claims under the State scheme and the NALSA 2018 schedule; a core recruitment subject for DLSA and NALSA posts.
• Women and Child Development machinery: One Stop Centre administrators, case workers and counsellors, Protection Officers under the DV Act, Support Persons under POCSO, CWC and Juvenile Justice Board members.
• Courts and prosecution: Public Prosecutors and judicial officers computing compensation in every judgment (*Ankush Shivaji Gaikwad*), MACT advocates and insurance claims managers applying *Sarla Verma* and *Pranay Sethi* multipliers.
• Insurance and corporate: motor third-party claims assessment, employee safety and POSH internal committees (the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013 allows compensation orders), CSR teams funding victim-support NGOs.
• Research and advocacy: BPR&D and NCRB research divisions, university victimisation studies, NGOs such as legal-aid clinics and acid-attack and trafficking survivor organisations.

Interview questions

• Q: Who coined the term "victimology" and when? A: Benjamin Mendelsohn, in 1947; Hans von Hentig's 1948 work on the criminal and his victim gave the field its first typology.
• Q: What is the difference between compensation and restitution? A: Restitution is the offender restoring what was taken or paying for the harm caused; compensation is money paid to the victim, often by the State through a statutory fund, regardless of what the offender can pay.
• Q: Can a victim get compensation if the offender is never caught? A: Yes - under BNSS s.396 (formerly CrPC 357A) the victim or dependants may apply directly to the DLSA/SLSA where the offender is not traced or identified and no trial takes place.
• Q: What is secondary victimisation? A: The additional harm caused to the victim after the crime by the justice system, media and society - insensitive interrogation, delays, repeated testimony, blaming and loss of privacy.
• Q: Give Mendelsohn's six-fold classification. A: Completely innocent; victim with minor guilt or through ignorance; voluntary victim; victim more guilty than offender; most guilty victim; and the simulating or imaginary victim.
• Q: What is victim precipitation and its danger? A: The idea that the victim's own act or characteristics contributed to the crime; it is useful in analysing homicides and brawls, but misapplied it becomes victim-blaming and is impermissible in sexual offence cases, where consent is the only legal question.
• Q: What must a hospital do when a rape or acid-attack victim arrives? A: Every hospital, public or private, must give free first aid and medical treatment at once and inform the police; refusal is an offence under the BNS (s.200), the provision formerly in IPC s.166B.
• Q: What is the minimum compensation for a rape survivor? A: Under the NALSA Scheme, 2018 the floor is ₹4 lakh (up to ₹7 lakh) for rape and ₹5-10 lakh for gang rape; individual State schemes may be more generous, so the State scheme in force governs the actual award.
• Q: Which judgment made compensation a mandatory consideration in criminal judgments? A: *Ankush Shivaji Gaikwad v. State of Maharashtra* (2013) - the court must apply its mind to compensation in every case and record reasons if it declines.
• Q: How can a victim challenge an acquittal? A: The victim has a statutory right of appeal against an acquittal, a conviction for a lesser offence or inadequate compensation - the proviso carried into the BNSS from CrPC s.372 - and need not depend on the State filing an appeal.
• Q: Why do NCRB figures understate victimisation? A: NCRB counts cases registered by police, so unreported and unrecorded incidents - the dark figure, large for domestic violence, caste atrocities, sexual offences and cyber fraud - never appear; India has no regular national victimisation survey.
• Q: What is restorative justice and where does Indian law allow it? A: A process that repairs harm through dialogue, apology and reparation instead of punishment alone; Indian law reflects it in plea bargaining (which must compensate the victim), compounding of offences, Lok Adalats and the reformative scheme of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015.

Common mistakes

• Citing CrPC ss. 357/357A/357C as current law - the CrPC was replaced by the BNSS, 2023 from 1 July 2024; give the BNSS section and mention the old number only as the former provision.
• Treating the NALSA 2018 amounts as fixed national awards: they are minimum floors and the applicable State Victim Compensation Scheme controls the actual figure.
• Confusing the sentencing court's compensation (BNSS s.395, from the offender) with scheme compensation (BNSS s.396, from the State fund) and saying both are paid in full without adjustment.
• Mixing up the typologies - attributing the 13 victim-prone classes to Mendelsohn or the six-fold culpability scale to von Hentig.
• Using victim precipitation as an explanation in sexual-offence answers; it is doctrinally wrong there and reads as victim-blaming in an interview.
• Forgetting the personal-expenses deduction or the future-prospects addition in a dependency calculation, or picking the multiplier from the claimant's age instead of the deceased's.
• Saying compensation requires conviction - POCSO Rule 9, BNSS s.396 and the constitutional remedy all operate without one.

Related topics

Criminological theories · Criminal justice system in India: police, prosecution, courts and prisons · Juvenile justice and child protection law · Crimes against women and children · Human rights and policing · Penology, probation and correctional administration