Victimology has been described as the scientific study of victims. The scope of victimology has been subject to much debate. Whether an independent field or a science related enterprise, the task of understanding and reducing this suffering by man through man is justification enough to keep the field alive. The sources of victimisation can be divided into either natural or human. Natural victimisation includes disasters, health hazards and predatory agents.
Human victimisation includes self-infliction, criminal and civil acts or omissions.
Victimisation can also be categorised under other classifications and typologies. They also identify a class of no victimisation . Keeping things in balance, therefore, becomes a major challenge, not only for victimologists, but for the journal. Each of the articles in this journal provides some insight and direction in victimology. Sam Garkawe draws on the Australian inquiry into the stolen generation of indigenous people to argue that victimology is not limited to criminal victimisation, rather it includes abuse of power resulting in violations of human rights.