After a brief look at victimology on the continent, a number of victim surveys have been undertaken more recently, apparently unconnected to this original development. Most of the surveys are carried out as empirical, information-collecting exercises, with no explicit relation to theory. This is argued to be problematical for victim research, given that such surveys make no direct contribution to the production of scientific knowledge. One way of overcoming this program, at least with relation to Latin America, is to make the pattern of criminal victimization the object of wider study, emphasizing the interplay between the organization of crime protection and the organization of crime itself. This approach is illustrated by the victim survey conducted in Cali, Colombia, in which significant findings emerged regarding the social distribution of protection, the role of the state in this distribution, the activities of property criminals and the resulting pattern of victimization. (Author abstract)