Transcript Forensic Victimology 2nd Edition

Forensic Victimology
2nd Edition
Chapter Eight: Psychological Aspects
of Victimology
Psychological Aspects of
Victimology
•
•
Psychological aspects of victimization can be very
helpful to the investigator, prosecutor, and defense
attorney.
Not only will investigators review psychological
information related to a deceased victim, but also
they will collect information from and interact with
live victims.
Psychological Aspects of
Victimology
•
There are two features of victimology that interfere
with its function as a body of knowledge and as an
investigative tool:
•
•
Deification of the victim - the tendency to view the
victim as lacking flaws. This can happen after a
violent crime, when investigators are given reports
that victims were saintly in every aspect of their lives.
Blaming the victim - how some perceive any
suggestion that a victim may have contributed to his
or her own victimization.
Victim Response to
Violent Crime
•
•
Victim response to violent crime is variable from
person to person, making it very difficult if not
impossible to predict how a crime victim should or
will behave.
A victim’s response usually involves three stages of
recovery:
1. Dealing with the initial impact of the attack
– The intensity and length will vary according to the
intensity of the assault, the level of physical injury,
and the perceived threat to life.
– The event will be filtered through the age,
personality, and general mental health and life
experiences of the victim.
Victim Response to
Violent Crime
2. Attempting to reconstitute his or her former
self
– Victim attempt to deal with the effect of the crime
on themselves and their lives.
– Emotions will be varied and include: sadness,
anger, self-pity, fear, and guilt.
– The length of time and psychological depth of this
stage varies depending on the person.
3. Reorganizing him – or herself to attend to life’s
daily activities.
– The emotional intensity is expected to lessen,
and the victim is more energized to deal with life’s
activities.
Victim Response to
Violent Crime
•
•
There have been several attempts to pathologize
the normal reactions of victims.
This following syndromes that have been used to
describe these pathologies:
•
•
•
•
•
Acute Stress Disorder,
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,
Battered Woman Syndrome,
Rape Trauma Syndrome, and
Stalking Trauma Syndrome.
Victim Response to
Violent Crime
•
Acute Stress Disorder (ASD)
•
•
•
A diagnosable mental disorder characterized by the
emergency of at least three dissociative symptoms
(emotional numbing, feeling “dazed”, derealization,
depersonalization, dissociative amnesia) within one
month after suffering a traumatic event and lasting at
least two days.
As part of the response to the event, the victim
experiences intense fear, helplessness, or horror.
The condition resolves within a month, or the
diagnosis is changed to reflect the chronicity of
symptoms.
Victim Response to
Violent Crime
•
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
•
•
•
•
This is a response similar to the Acute Stress
Disorder, but is more chronic.
It is “acute” if less than three months, “chronic” if
greater than three months, and “delayed” is the onset
is six months or after the traumatic event.
The diagnostic criteria include exposure to a
traumatic event with a response including intense
fear, helplessness or horror.
The event is reexperienced in a persistent manner in
various easy, including one or more of the following:
dreams, flashbacks, and psychological and/or
physical reactions on exposure to cues connected to
the event.
Victim Response to
Violent Crime
•
Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS)
•
A proposed mental disorder suggested to affect
women who have been involved in long-term violent
relationships; the victim learns no longer to try and
affect the course of the abuse, as she believes it will
not change the outcome.
Victim Response to
Violent Crime
•
Rape Trauma Syndrome (RTS)
•
•
•
A syndrome claimed to be developed by victims of
rape or attempted rape, which consists of a phase of
acute disorganization followed by a phase of longterm reorganization.
During both phases various lifestyle factors may be
affected, including physical, psychological, social,
and sexual.
This syndrome has no criteria for accurate diagnosis
other than a person having been subjected to the
rape itself.
Victim Response to
Violent Crime
•
Stalking Trauma Syndrome (STS)
•
•
Stalking refers to a repetitive act usually undertaken
to cause distress to the victim, it may be perpetrated
both in the real world and in cyberspace. Behaviors
can range from unwanted communications with the
victim to sexual assault, kidnapping, and homicide.
Stalking Trauma Syndrome involves a cycle of crisis,
recovery, and anticipation, as the harassment is
ongoing.
Victim Recollection
•
•
The ability for victims to recall correctly in a forensic
context is affected by hypnosis, medication, alcohol,
and street drugs.
The investigator needs to be aware of the effects
these processes and substances may have on the
memory of a victim or witness.
Victim Recollection
•
Hypnosis
•
•
Hypnosis refers to the art of putting someone in an
altered state of consciousness, wherein critical
thinking tends to be relaxed and the subject is more
suggestible than normal.
Those undergoing hypnosis may be susceptible to
suggestion made by the hypnotist and may make
things up or believe their recalled memories to be
accurate than they actually are.
Victim Recollection
•
There are three general problems with using
hypnosis in legal contexts:
1. The subject is more suggestible than he or she
would be otherwise, subject to many influences,
including verbal and nonverbal cues from the
hypnotist and a possible desire to please the
hypnotist;
2. The subject may unintentionally confabulate so
that the memories presented are more complete
and comprehensive; and
3. The subject may have an enhanced belief in the
veracity of his or her hypnotically recalled
memories, regardless of their actual truthfulness.
Victim Recollection
•
Victim Toxicology
•
•
•
Victim toxicology refers to the presence or absence
of various substances in the system of a victim at a
time that is related to the criminal event or the
reporting of that event.
The ability to recall accurately can be affected by
prescribed medications, alcohol, cocaine, and other
street drugs.
The investigator must be aware of this in order to
question victims as to medication or drug use.
Victim Recollection
•
•
Memory consists of several steps:
1. A stimulus (something the victim heard, saw, or
felt) must first be perceived by a person.
2. Once perceived, the stimulus can be mentally
recorded.
3. Once recorded, at some future date a memory of
the stimulus can be retrieved.
Drugs can potentially affect all three processes, with
difficulties in retrieving memories often related to the
effects of chronic drug use. Drugs known to affect
memory include alcohol, benzodiazepines, and
marijuana.