NCJ Number
145600
Date Published
1992
Length
90 pages
Annotation
Psychological hardships experienced by many Canadian victims of robbery, nondomestic assault, domestic assault, physical child abuse, kidnaping, and murder are profound, yet they have not received commensurate support from criminal justice, health, and social service agencies.
Abstract
In general terms, psychological reactions to stressful and traumatic life events such as criminal victimization range from mild to severe. Mild reactions are characterized by a wide range of symptoms, including minor sleep disturbances, irritability, worry, interpersonal strain, attention lapses, and the exacerbation of prior health problems. Symptoms of severe psychological harm encompass persistent and heightened arousal, psychic numbing, and recurring thoughts about the stressor. Research literature indicates that psychological harm is not qualitatively different across offense types. A general model of factors relevant to victim recovery is proposed which posits that reactions to criminal victimization are mediated by three classes of variables: victim previctimization characteristics, victim postvictimization ability to cope, and factors related to the criminal event. These variables are analyzed for robbery, kidnaping, torture, terrorism, assault, domestic violence, and physical child abuse. 283 references, 3 footnotes, 6 tables, and 1 figure