Social and Psychological Consequences of Violent Victimization PDF
Preview Social and Psychological Consequences of Violent Victimization
SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF VIOLENT νΙΕΠΜΙΖΑΓΙΟΝ To my mother, Mary P. Ruback, and the memory of my father, Norman Ruback. —Barry To my husband, Kip Kingree, and my son, jack Kingree. —Martie SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF VIOLENT VICTIMIZAnON R. BARRY RUBACK • MARTIE R THOMPSON kSage Publications I International Educational and Professional Publisher 'Thousand Oaks • London • New Delhi Copyright © 2001 by Sage Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information: Sage Publications, Inc. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 E-mail: [email protected] Sage Publications Ltd. 6 Bonhill Street London EC2A 4PU United Kingdom Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd. M-32 Market Greater Kailash I New Delhi 110 048 India Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ruback, R. Barry, 1950 Social and psychological consequences of violent victimization / by R. Barry Ruback and Martie R Thompson, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 10:0-7619-1040-9 ISBN 13: 978-0-76I9-I040-4 (doth: alk. paper) ISBN 10: 0-7619-1041-7 ISBN 13: 978-0-76I9-104I-1 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Victims of crimes—United States. 2. Violent crimes— United States. I. Thompson, Martie P. II. Title. HV6250.3.U5 R8 2001 362.88Ό973—dc21 00-012406 07 08 09 10 11 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 Acquiring Editor: Nancy Hale Editorial Assistant: Vonessa Vondera Production Editor: Denise Santoyo Editorial Assistant: Kathryn Journey Typesetter: Janelle LeMaster Cover Designer: Michelle Lee Contents Preface vii 1. Introduction and Overview 1 The Violent Crime Problem 3 Growth of Interest in Victims 4 Violence in the United States 6 Measuring Violent Victimization 11 General Theories of Victimization 23 Summary 27 SS Discussion Questions 27 2. Studying the Effects of Victimization 29 Data Sources for Measuring the Effects of Violent Victimization 30 Framework for Considering the Effects of Violent Victimization 46 η Discussion Questions 47 3. Violent Victimization and the Immediate Aftermath 49 Characteristics of the Participants in Violent Victimizations 50 Actions During Violent Victimizations 57 Victims' Actions After Violent Victimizations 65 Influence of Others on the Victim's Recovery 77 Summary 81 R Discussion Questions 84 4. Affective, Behavioral, and Cognitive Consequences of Violent Victimization on Direct Crime Victims 87 Affective Consequences of Violent Crime 87 Behavioral Consequences of Violent Crime 93 Cognitive Consequences of Violent Crime 98 Summary of Affective, Behavioral, and Cognitive Consequences of Victimization 103 Contextual Factors Affecting Outcomes 105 Postcrime Influences 112 Special Populations 121 Summary 127 Ιί Discussion Questions 131 5. Secondary Victimization: The Effects of Violence on Family Members, Friends, Neighbors, and Professionals 133 Secondary Victimization 134 Effects of Nonhomicidal Crimes on Family Members, Friends, Neighbors, and Coworkers 135 Family Members of Homicide Victims 138 Witnessing Violence 143 Professionals' Secondary Traumatization 150 Summary 153 i! Discussion Questions 154 6. The Effects of Violent Victimization on Communities 155 Characteristics of Neighborhoods 156 Effects of Violent Crime on Communities 157 Community Interventions to Reduce Violent Crime 170 Summary 179 ΪΪ Discussion Questions 179 7. Summary and Implications 181 The Effects of Victimizations on Individuals and Communities 182 Individual-Level Interventions 182 Neighborhood-Level Interventions 191 System-Level Interventions 194 IS Discussion Questions 203 References 205 Author Index 231 Subject Index 239 About the Authors 247 Preface A violent crime is more than a single incident affecting a single person along a single dimension of injury. Rather, it is typically the beginning of a series of actions that the victim, the victim's family, and the victim's friends have to take in order to cope with the physical injury, emotional distress, and economic costs that result from the violence. These actions include having to decide whether or not to call the police, seek medical care, and obtain counseling. Making these decisions is often more problematic when the victim and offender have a prior relationship, because questions of perceived blame may be diffi cult to answer. The purpose of this book is to examine the impact of violent crime on individuals, families, and communities. To do so, we have used the literature from several disciplines, because the issues transcend levels of analysis (i.e., individuals, groups, and communities) and they cross traditional boundaries (e.g., between research and clinical practice and between criminology and public health). One of our primary goals in writing this book is to emphasize the need for multiple research meth ods and multiple theoretical perspectives for understanding the effects and implications of violent crime. This book is primarily a product of our own thinking and research over the past few years about the consequences of victimization. How ever, at a more fundamental level, the book reflects our conversations vu viii CONSEQUENCES OF VIOLENT VICTIMIZATION and collaborations with several individuals during the past 20 years. Ruback first became interested in the topic through research con ducted with Martin Greenberg at the University of Pittsburgh, much of which is summarized in this book. Since then, his research collabora tors (particularly Deborah Ivie, Kim Menard, and Jennifer Shaffer) and the students in his courses on victimization have sharpened his focus on questions of psychological impact and public policy. Thompson first became interested in the effects of violent crime through her doc toral research with Fran Norris in the community psychology program at Georgia State University. Thereafter, her postdoctoral work with Nadine Kaslow at Emory University School of Medicine, and her expe riences as a scientist, working primarily with Linda Saltzman and Jim Mercy in the Division of Violence Prevention at the Centers for Dis ease Control and Prevention, have expanded her thinking on the causes and consequences of violent crime. We would like to thank the National Institute of Justice and the National Institute of Mental Health, which have funded our research and encouraged our thinking about the effects of victimization. We would also like to thank our institutions, Pennsylvania State University and Emory University, for their support. Thanks also to Neil Weiner at the University of Pennsylvania for initially suggesting the need for this book. At Sage we would like to thank Terry Hendrix, who was support ive of the book from the beginning, and Nancy Hale, who shepherded us through the publication process. Violent crimes can have profound effects on individuals, neighbor hoods, and society in general. Our hope is that this book will encour age readers to think more broadly about how these consequences can be measured, understood, ameliorated, and prevented. 1 « Introduction and Overview Kathy, a 47-year-old married woman, related the following assault: My daughter and I usually run together in the early evening. On that day, at about 5:30, she called to say that her husband had just called, and he was held up at work, and I was a bit leery of going alone as by 5:30 it was already getting dark, and I knew that the area wasn't the safest place for women. But I was in a good rou- tine, and I wanted to keep up my momentum so that I'd be in form for the Bonnie Bell race. I left a note for my husband and drove over to the jogging track. There was hardly anyone in the parking lot, and I thought that maybe I should just not go, but I thought to myself that I was just being an old fogy. So I warmed up and went down the open stretch at the beginning of the track where the streetlights flooded the path. Then I turned the curve. I saw the outline of the woman's form painted on the path, which was the place where a woman was raped, and which the Women's Center had painted there as a reminder. I was a bit taken aback, more so than usual. But again, I chided myself for being silly. I ran a bit faster. It's a 5-mile course, and as I passed the 3-mile marker I felt that I'd have been foolish to stay home. It felt good to be moving. That's when he got me. He must have been hiding in the bushes by the golf course, as all
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