This is a timely book and a fitting tribute to the writings and intellectual legacy of the great Norwegian anti-criminologist Nils Christie (1928–2015). The 16 original chapters comprising this excellent collection not only provide an innovative interpretation, but also substantially develop upon one the most important ideas that Christie explored in his long career: the ‘ideal victim’. Collectively, the chapter authors evidence the continued relevance of this concept for our understanding of the denial and acknowledgement of harmful outcomes that fall both inside and outside the remit of the criminal law. Indeed, the durability and flexibility of the concept of the ‘ideal victim’ is perfectly illustrated in the breadth of themes covered in this book, which include chapters on environmental harms, structural violence, sexual violence, hate crime, sex work, Islamophobia and online fraud. I think Nils Christie would have been delighted to see his work applied in such sophisticated and original ways.

Nils Christie was a leading member of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control and his work is closely associated with the tradition of ‘penal abolitionism’. Like his great friend Stanley Cohen (2001), Christie was concerned with the recognition, or not, of human suffering. A ‘moral imperialist’ and humanist, many of his writings are a direct call to limit unnecessary and useless human suffering. For Christie, it was crucial that, as a society, we attempt to limit and heal pain rather than increase it. This was one of the main reasons why he so strongly opposed harms deliberately initiated through the penal law (Christie, 1981) and why his work has been so influential in victim studies.

Although the intellectual connections between ‘penal abolitionism’ and ‘victimology’ are largely underexplored, the links between them are clearly strong as both traditions are grounded in a commitment to acknowledge and subsequently reduce human suffering. Both penal abolitionism and victimology place the person harmed at the centre of their analysis and their top priority is to meet the needs of the victim. Through their reflections on the ‘ideal victim’, the chapters in this book shine a spotlight on just how important such a victim-centred approach is. The range of topics explored, the nature of the harms interrogated and the invisibility and denial of the victimhood of people on the margins of society demonstrate how dynamic, vibrant and fruitful such an approach can be.