Official victim
The official victim enhancement is a 3- or 6-level increase under the
threats against the President of the United States, courts have applied the official victim enhancement, rejecting arguments that in order for it to apply, "the President actually [had] been harmed, or ... [knew] of the existence of the defendant's letter."[4] There has been a circuit split in the federal appellate courts as to whether crimes against local government officials qualify for the official victim enhancement.[5] 0.1% of federal cases involve the official victim enhancement.[6]
The term "official victim" also is used in victimology to refer to a four-stage process in which a person progresses from being a harmed, injured or suffering person(s) to perceiving or defining oneself as a victim, to claiming the victim role from social control agents or significant others and then to social control agents' recognition of the role claim — becoming an 'official victim' and receiving compensatory and supportive actions by social control agents.[7]
References
- ^ U.S.S.G. §3A1.2, archived from the original on 2010-06-18, retrieved 2010-03-26
- ^ US v. Padilla, 961 F. 2d 322 (Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit 1992).
- ^ US v. Muhammad, 948 F. 2d 1449 (Court of Appeals, 6th Circuit 1991).
- ^ US v. McCaleb, 908 F. 2d 176 (Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit 1990).
- ^ U.S. v. Hudspeth, 208 F.3d 537 (6th Cir. 2000).
- ^ M R Burt (1983), Conceptual Framework for Victimological Research, vol. 8, Victimology, pp. 261–269