The victims of crime and the inclusion of suffering

The idea

This element asks you to examine who suffers when a crime is committed and how that suffering is represented. Victims may be direct targets, such as the murdered Roger Ackroyd in Christie's novel, or indirect, such as Rose, the young waitress damaged by Pinkie's corruption in Brighton Rock. Suffering can be physical, psychological, social or economic, and writers include it to shape sympathy, raise moral questions and expose the cost of crime beyond the criminal act itself. When analysing, identify the victim, classify the suffering, trace who caused it, and consider the writer's purpose: is suffering used to condemn, to entertain, to critique society, or to complicate our judgement of the criminal? Close attention to language, form and structure shows how the text positions readers towards victims and offenders.

What earns the marks

• Identifies specific victims, distinguishing direct targets from indirect or secondary victims affected by the crime.
• Classifies the suffering shown, for example physical injury, grief, psychological trauma, poverty or social disgrace.
• Analyses how language, form and structure present suffering, such as imagery of blood, fragmented narration or dramatic irony.
• Explores the writer's purposes for including suffering, such as generating sympathy, moral condemnation or social critique.
• Connects the treatment of victims to the wider conventions of crime writing, including justice, detection and punishment.
• Evaluates how the inclusion of suffering shapes the reader's response to the criminal and to the crime itself.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Treating the victim only as a plot device and ignoring their emotional or social suffering.

  Put it right by analysing the victim's experience and the language used to convey it.

• Assuming all suffering is physical.

  Put it right by considering psychological, economic and social forms of suffering as well.

• Describing what happens to victims without linking it to the writer's purpose.

  Put it right by explaining how the suffering shapes meaning and reader response.

Exam tips

• Plan responses around a clear argument about who suffers and why the writer includes that suffering.
• Use precise quotations that reveal the nature of the suffering, then analyse individual words and images.
• Link every point about victims to the wider crime-writing genre and the text's moral concerns.