Under what circumstances and by what methods is a group identified as a distinctive "other," an alien "other," and an inferior "other" to be excluded from membership in that society and then exterminated? How and why are certain people placed "outside the universe of moral obligation" to paraphrase sociologist Helen Fein's aphorism? Several sociological theories help explain such victimization.

In the 1940s, Hans Von Hentig, a German criminologist, launched the study of the relationship between criminals and their victims. Hentig argued that much of what victims do or who they are leads to their victimization; crime is a product of an interaction between offender and victims, he said. The field of victimization was thus born. The earliest victimization studies were heavily influenced by Freudian psychology, which argued that victims yearned, and were in some way responsible, for their victimization. A good example of such an...