The Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice congratulates Ph.D. student Daniel Fredes García for receiving second place in the 2025 Student Paper Competition held by the American Society of Criminology’s Division of International Criminology. His paper, “Victimization and Political Participation from an International Comparative Perspective,” was recognized for its original contribution to the field.

The ASC Division of International Criminology hosts this annual competition to highlight outstanding student research on international or comparative criminology topics. Winners receive a monetary award and will be recognized at the ASC annual meeting in November.

Daniel Fredes García is a current Ph.D. student in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. His research interests focus on examining how state violence and victimization influence political participation, social control, and crime in international and comparative contexts.

Fredes García’s paper investigates how experiencing victimization can influence political participation, using data collected from 65 countries through Wave 7 of the World Values Survey, conducted between 2018 and 2022. The study applied propensity score matching and cross-national moderation models to explore the relationship between victimization and various forms of political engagement.

Daniel Fredes García found that both direct and indirect experiences of victimization were associated with higher levels of political participation, including conventional, unconventional, and online forms. Victims were more likely to take actions such as encouraging others to vote, contacting government officials, donating to campaigns, joining strikes, attending demonstrations, signing petitions, and participating in online mobilization. However, the study also showed that victims were somewhat less likely to vote in local or national elections. The relationship between victimization and political participation varied by country. In countries with higher rates of violence, the link between victimization and participation was weaker. In contrast, countries with more effective criminal justice systems saw a stronger relationship. Liberal democracies, in general, showed weaker associations between victimization and both unconventional and online participation.

Daniel Fredes García explained that his interest in the topic came from a gap he noticed in the research.

"I was motivated by a gap I noticed in victimization research. Much of the existing literature examines how people’s behavior influences their risk of becoming victims, but far less attention has been given to how victimization itself reshapes behavior, especially in ways that may foster pro-social behavior. I wanted to explore whether experiencing crime can motivate individuals to become more politically active, and how these effects differ across countries. Criminology tends to be nationally focused, but by leveraging cross-national survey data, I was able to bring in variation that helps us critically interrogate patterns that might appear fixed when examined only within a single national context,” he said.

Daniel Fredes García began working on the paper in fall 2023 as a final project for the graduate course “Seminar on Victimization,” taught by Professor Min Xie. He continued to revise the manuscript with support and feedback from Professor Min Xie, Professor Pilar Larroulet, and cohort colleague Codey Carr. An earlier version of the paper was presented at the ASC 2024 annual meeting in San Francisco.

Fredes García described the award as a meaningful recognition of the time and effort he put into the research. He is now preparing the paper for submission to an academic journal.

He also expressed hope that the research would help expand the way crime victims are viewed within the field.

"Victimization is often studied only in terms of harm, but it can also foster agency and collective mobilization. Recognizing this dimension can inform policies that both strengthen democratic participation and improve victims’ well-being," he said.