The Diminished Figure of the Serial Killer in a Confession

Historically, the discipline of criminology has been concerned with offenders and the causes of crime. Criminology’s specific focus on victims, via the sub-discipline of victimology, began in the 1940s with the work of Hans Von Hentig but it gathered momentum in the wake of second wave feminism in the 1970s and feminist influences on criminology. These cultural phenomena helped to identify and refocus attention onto male violence against women and the shortcomings associated with legal and criminal justice responses to domestic and sexual violence. Responding to criticisms that radical criminology did not acknowledge victims of crime, left realist criminologists in the 1990s began to explore the impact crime had in urban areas, including a focus on victims of crime, disorder, and incivilities.