Revisiting the ‘Ideal Victim’: Developments in Critical Victimology presents a collection of academic responses to the late Nils Christie's (1986) seminal chapter, in which he addressed the socially constructed concept of an idealised form of victim status or identity. In unpacking what it was to be a ‘victim’ in a given society, Christie highlighted the complex factors informing the application or rejection of such a status while illustrating the role of subjective/objective perspectives on personal/societal responses to victimisation. In sum, he outlined the existence of an ‘ideal victim’: ‘a person or category of individuals, who – when hit by crime – most readily are given the complete and legitimate status of being a victim’ (Christie 1986: 18, emphasis in original). It is his example of the little old lady who is hit on the head by a big, bad man who grabs her bag (and uses the money for liquor or drugs while she is on her way home in the middle of the day after having cared for her sick sister) that forms the basis for the first five of the six key attributes highlighted in the construction of the ‘ideal victim’ (Christie, 1986: 19):

This piece of writing and the concept Christie outlined within it has become a most frequently cited theme of victimological (and, where relevant, criminological) academic scholarship over the past 30 years. Recognising this, the proposed volume seeks to celebrate and commemorate Nils Christie's contribution to victimology by analysing, evaluating and critiquing the current nature and impact of victim identity, experience, policy and practice in light of this ‘ideal victim’ concept. Within this, it has been imperative to recognise that the decision regarding what is and is not a ‘crime’ often reflects political power and interests.