Vici grant awarded for research into the narrative world of victimization

Every year in the Netherlands, approximately 3 million people become the victim of a crime, of which approximately 1 million file a police report and approximately 250,000 participate in later phases of the criminal process. Over the past 50 years, victims have been given more and more rights in this process.

The narrative of victimization

However, the relationship between victims and criminal law is still not well understood. Victims see the criminal process as part of their story – in other words, the narrative – of their victimization, but this narrative character is often not reflected in research into their experiences.

Pemberton, on narrative victimology: ‘Being a victim affects the way people experience themselves. A traumatic event turns your life and your life story upside down. One of the reasons that victims want to share their experiences with others in the same situation is that together they can build a new story and find meaning. I call that re-storying.’

The narrative relationship between victims and criminal law

Specifically within the relationship between victims and criminal law, there are four dimensions that together shape this narrative: i) the experiences of victims with criminal law; ii) how the public views the position of the victim in criminal law; iii) how the victim movement frames the relationship between victims and criminal law; and iv) how the role of victims in criminal law is constructed in law, policy and legal discourse and how these constructions are then reflected back into criminal law. To date, these dimensions have hardly been included in research into the relationship between victims and criminal law.

The scientific innovation of this study therefore relates to groundbreaking narrative research into the relationship between victims and criminal law, and specifically into all four of the aforementioned dimensions: the experience of victims, the public, the victim movement and legal discourse. This study will provide new empirical insights into victimization and lay the foundation for a more well-founded and comprehensive consideration of the position of victims in criminal law.

About Prof. Antony Pemberton

Pemberton has a background in political science and criminology. He worked at Intervict, the International Victimology Institute Tilburg at Tilburg University, for 13 years, during which time he also served as part of its management. Since October 2019, he has been a professor of criminology with a focus on restorative justice and victimology at KU Leuven.

In January 2020, he started at the NSCR as a senior researcher in the Victimization research group. In these roles, he has conducted and supervised a wide range of victimological research, including ten completed PhD projects, and has also focused on policy, including as a member of the Donner Committee on victim compensation, as an advisor to the European Commission on the Victims' Directive and as co-author of the Council of Europe's 2023 recommendation on victims.

About the Vici grant

The Vici grant is part of the talent programme of the NWO. The Vici target group consists of researchers in the stage of consolidation and further development of leadership/research group, for which the Vici can contribute to the development of the researcher in this area. Researchers who are eligible for a Vici grant have academic qualities that clearly exceed the norm and have established leadership and mentoring qualities. The Vici grant is intended to finance scientifically innovative research and thereby give these researchers the opportunity to expand their research group and further develop their chosen line of research.

See also the press release on the website of the NWO