A paper on victim-related research at the Max Planck Institute is followed by a review of research on victimization and related topics in the Federal Republic of Germany and in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Other chapters address victimology research in Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Greece, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Israel, Africa, and Japan. A section on victim surveys contains 18 papers. A number of the papers focus on victimization surveys in the following countries: Federal Republic of Germany, Great Britain, Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, and Japan. Other papers focus on particular topics of relevance to victim surveys. these topics include victim behavior and the risk of victimization, victim characteristics, fear of crime, attitudes toward the police and the mass media, fear of crime in Germany, and public attitudes toward crime as manifested in the Zurich Victim Survey (Switzerland). The volume concludes with the presentation of the results of victim survey research in a small Greek town, with reference to the attitudes toward crime and the criminal justice system. Chapter references, tables, and figures