The study of crime victims is primarily the study of the failure of crime prevention by citizenry and by the police and secondarily the study of the active participation and precipitation of criminal events by their victims. Early victimological research concentrated on the active participation of victims of crime in their own misfortune. The development of victimization surveys shifted the emphasis of research away from the crime event to descriptions of both the overall incidence of victimization and the extent of victimization as defined for demographic subgroups of the population. Research on victim-offender dynamics within the context of micro- and macroenvironment and history demonstrates effects of these factors on the outcome of criminal violence in robbery, assault, and rape. A series of four studies is proposed to focus the study of victimization upon the particular concerns within the victim's environment, concerns which are different from the motivation of the police and the courts. Since the study of a crime event is a study of the potential victim's attempts to manage a dangerous situation, future victimization research should include the following interrelated studies: (1) a study of the probability of victimization, (2) a detailed study of the criminal event, (3) a study of the notification bridge from crime to criminal justice process, and (4) the victim in the criminal justice processing system. These studies will address the failure of victimology to conceptualize the role of the victim or to develop a unified body of research on the victim from his own perspective. Tables, charts, and 21 references are provided. (Author abstract modified)