Victimology vs Criminology

In May of 2008, Christian William Carney, age 25 and Alvin Lovely, age 24, shot and killed a fellow marine officer, Stephen Serrano, age 20, in retaliation for the theft of Carney's drug money from the room at Camp Pendelton where Carney was stationed and lived.  Carney had been a cocaine and ecstacy dealer at Camp Pendelton, which is located in Southern California.  Were they criminals because they killed Serrano, or were they simply retaliating to the theft of the drug money in the only way that they knew, because of their military training?  Most people would say that they are cold blooded killers, but some would say that they just wanted their money back and when they didn't get it, went into a rage and simply retaliated by using their military training. 

    Victimology is the study of victims, i.e. what makes up a victim and how to help the victim heal after they have been involved in a crime; whereas Criminology is the study of criminals, how they function, how to punish them and how the public reacts to criminals within their midst.
   
    It is commonly accepted that there are five types of victim typologies, as set out by Selin and Wolfgang and they can be described as follows:
   
1) Primary Victimization - This would be when a crime is focused on a single person as a victim such as a "hit" (also known as a ‘contract’) whereby someone sets out to kill a certain person; or a crime of passion, i.e.  a husband coming in on his wife and her lover.

2) Secondary Victimization – This occurs when the victims are random targets of opportunity such as school shootings, when someone enters a school with the intent of creating mayhem and panic in order to create more targets as people run helter skelter; or muggings or pick pocketing, which are crimes of opportunity usually with the intent of monetary gain. 

3) Tertiary Victimization - This typology covers things such as terrorism where the pubic in general is the target.  9/11 is a very good example of this type of victimization… whereas terrorists targeted very public monuments in an attempt to instill a response from their intended goal.

4) Mutual Victimization - This is where criminals victimize other criminals.  An example of this would be when one gang takes over another gang's "turf".  They attack each other in an attempt to either take or maintain control over a piece of property.

5) No Victimization - This would be when it becomes hard to decide who the real victim is.  An example of 'No Victimization' would be when a drunk stumbles home, tries to put his key in the door but it won't work so he goes over to a window and breaks it to get in, only to find that it is not his house and the owner of that house shoots him.

    An incident which demonstrates the grey areas that can exist when identifying the difference between a victim and criminal would be the incident between Christian William Carney and Stephen Serrano.  Stephen Serrano was both a victim and a criminal.
   
    In the case of California vs. Christian William Carney, we have a Lance Corporal from Camp Pendleton, California who, in addition to being a Marine, was also a drug dealer who dealt cocaine and ecstacy on base.   It was alleged that when Carney had left the base to go pick up PFC Alvin Reed Lovely in Texas, fellow marines Pfc. Stephen Serrano and Pfc. Chad Hatch proceeded to break into Carney's room and steal the drug money that Carney had stashed there for safe keeping. (Megerian, 2012)
   
    Subsequently, it was on May 13, 2008 that Carney and Lovely, after holding a gun to Chad Hatch’s head and threatening him, that they were able to gather information from him that named Stephen Serrano as Hatch’s accomplice in the robbery.  After getting this information from Hatch, they then proceeded to contact Serrano and set up a time and place to meet.  Not all the details of what occurred at this meeting are available, however it was at this meeting that they shot Serrano once in the face and then three more times in the back, killing him.  (Coker, 2012)
   
    After having killed Serrano, Carney and Lovely took off, leaving Serrano’s body where it fell.  Being a secluded area of San Clemente, CA and the body laying in a ditch, it was not until 2 days later, on May 15, 2008, that Serrano's body was found by a jogger, still dressed in military fatigues. The police investigation progressed swiftly and in less than two weeks, Carney was arrested and placed in custody on suspicion of murder.  After a 5 day search, Alvin Reed Lovely was also arrested at a home in Dallas County, California, where he had been hiding.  Lovely is currently awaiting trial on murder as well as an additional 38 years to life in state prison for the personal use of a firearm.  (Coker, 2012)
   
    Both pleaded Not Guilty to the murder charges that had been brought up against them.  At the completion of the trial, Carney was sentenced to 28 years and eight months to life in prison.  In addition to the murder conviction, Carney has also been convicted on felony counts of criminal threats and attempting to dissuade a witness. (Coker, 2012)
    While Carney was the victim of a robbery which had been perpetrated by Serrano, his subsequent actions in killing Serrano also made him a criminal.  I believe that therefore, this crime can be classified as an example of 'Primary Victimization'.  The perpetrators focused on one man, Stephen Serrano, because he had stolen Carney's drug money.  Christian William Carney then proceeded to act out his premeditated plans to punish Serrano.  
   
    This case is an example of one that would fall under the heading of criminology rather than victimology, despite the fact that Carney was the victim of a theft committed by Stephen Serrano.  

References
Coker, Matt. OCWeekly.com. “Christian William Carney, Who Murdered Fellow Marine over Drug Money, Gets 28+ Years”. March 02, 2012.

Megerian, Chris. LA Times. L.A. NOW. "Former Marine sentenced to prison in drug murder of fellow Marine". March 02, 2012.