Some crime victims suffer lifelong pain from wounds and some suffer permanent disability, but for the majority of victims, the worst consequences are psychological. Identify, define, and summarize at least two types of this type of victim and consequence.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Rape, in particular, has these consequences for its victims (“Did I contribute to it?” “Could I have done more to prevent it?”). The shock, anger, and depression that typically afflicts a rape victim is known as rape trauma syndrome, which is similar to post-traumatic stress syndrome (reexperiencing the event via “flashbacks,” avoiding anything at all associated with the event, and a general numbness of affect) often suffered by those who have experienced the horrors of war (van Berlo & Ensink, 2000). Victimization “also changes one’s perceptions of and beliefs about others in society. It does so by indicating others as sources of threat and harm rather than sources of support”

Victims of property crimes, particularly burglary, also have the foundations of their world shaken. The home is supposed to be a personal sanctuary of safety and security, and when it is “touched” by an intruder, some victims describe it as the “rape” of their home (Bartol, 2002, P. 336). A British study of burglary victims found that 65% reacted with anger, 30% with fear of revictimization, and 29% suffered insomnia as a consequence. The type and severity of these reactions were structured by victims’ place in the social structure, with those most likely to be affected being women, older and poorer individuals, and residents of single-parent households