The Intervention of the Design Discipline in the Challenge of Victimization

Abstract

This article argues that it’s important for the design discipline to intervene in complex social problems, such as victimization. This challenge requires transdisciplinary work encompassing design, victimology and the social sciences in general. The authors suggest that design specialists should have the tools and methods required to respond to the challenge represented by victims with an innovative, creative and realistic optic. Consequently, they argue for a vision of design that is connected to the community and its needs in order to strategically address meaningful social problems such as victimization. This, in turn, could help overcome the traditional associations of the design industry-market-consumption. This article revolves around the following question: What are the challenges that the design discipline must confront when addressing social phenomena such as working with and caring for victims and situations of revictimization?