Victims

This second edition of Dr. Jan Yager's classic book on crime victims, published by Scribner in 1978 to rave reviews, is divided into three parts. Part 1 is a 50+ page Introduction researched and written in 2021-2023. Topics covered in that Part include the results of Dr. Yager's original survey of more than 200 men and women about their recent victimization. Part 2 is the first update to the classic book, added in 2015. In that part you will read the extensive interview with Debra Puglisi-Sharp, author of Shattered, who was raped and held hostage for several days by the kidnapper who also killed her husband. Part 3 is the original classic book. However, Dr. Yager has updated the original statistics and has selectively revised the text, where needed. The in depth interviews are still pertinent and memorable. Topics covered in Part 3 are the victims of homicide; property crime victims; aggravated assault and family violence victims; victims of rape and child sexual abuse; compensation to victims, and more.

Review of the first edition (Part 3): "...recreates the emotions of the victim (and the secondary victim) with a directness and clarity that is impossible to ignore."-Washington Post



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jan Yager, the former J.L. (Janet Lee) Barkas, is a well-regarded victimologist/criminologist/sociologist whose 50+ books include the textbook Essentials of Victimology: Crime Victims, Theories, Controversies, and Victims' Rights, published by Aspen Publishing in 2022 as well as When Friendship Hurts, published by Simon & Schuster with translations into 29 languages. Dr. Yager's interest in the criminal justice system and crime victims started in her twenties because of a tragedy: the mugging of her older brother Seth Alan Barkas by a teenage gang. Her brother died a few days later from his stab wounds. Dr. Yager went on to get an MA in Criminal Justice at Goddard College Graduate Program, under the mentorship of Dr. Arthur Niederhofer, a Professor in John Jay College of Criminal Justice's Sociology Department, followed by a Ph.D. in Sociology at the Graduate Center of City University of New York. For more on Dr. Yager, who is an award-winning Adjunct Associate Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where she teaches Victimology and other courses, visit her main website: https://www.drjanyager.com